


Galerians: Nemesis

by wargoddess



Category: Galerians, Galerians: Ash
Genre: First Time, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-26
Updated: 2011-04-26
Packaged: 2017-10-18 16:34:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 22,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/190939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wargoddess/pseuds/wargoddess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>200 years after Ash's rampage, Rion awakens in a strange and dark place again.  This time, he isn't alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I originally posted this years ago, after the game Galerians: Ash came out, on one of the Galerians mailing lists. If this seems familiar, congratulations! You've got a great memory.

I awoke to screaming. At first I thought it was my own, but as my consciousness clarified I realized that the sound was more distant, echoing from the walls around me.

"Sedate him, damn it!"

"I'm trying. I can't get close enough... Must be some kind of shield..."

"Jesus, he's going to break an arm or something."

"Something must have gone wrong with the integration, maybe we misinterpreted the gene schematics, it was such an abnormal body structure -- "

[terror disgust connection attempt failure attempt FAILURE! WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO ME??]

I opened my eyes. Mist floated before them, partially obscuring a distant ceiling of plain white panels. I sat up, feeling unpleasantly dizzy for a moment, and saw that the whole room around me was a circular dome covered in the panels, save for a door and a window set high into the wall. The window's glass was dark; I could not see through it.

"Dr. Crain, please be advised that the other subject is active."

"Oh, my God."

Behind me there were startled gasps, several shuffles, all obscured by the sound of the screaming. I turned my head and beheld a room full of strangers. Some were in white coats --

 _\-- like Lilia --_

\-- and four wore uniforms of some sort. Two of them carried weapons, which were currently aimed at me.

I should have been frightened. But the desperate cries of the other drew my attention more. I looked down at the feet of the scientists and saw a flailing confusion of limbs and hair and wild-animal eyes.

I could not bear the anguish in my mind. Stretching out a hand in reflex, I sent forth an unseen touch and soothed the other's pain as best I could.

The other mind latched onto mine with the fierce grip of a drowning victim. [failure failure signal disruption what has happened WHAT AM I I'm afraid who are you?]

I thought for a moment, and remembered. [Rion.]

[Rion?] The panic began to fade. His screams stopped. [I don't... I don't understand. I can't gain access. I _can't gain access_.]

"Would you look at that -- He's stopped convulsing!"

"Fascinating..."

"Dr. Crain, the experimental regulations are very specific about permitting the subjects to exercise their abilities." There was the click of a weapon.

"Just *wait,* damn it. Look at this. Harold, be ready to administer the sedative if it looks as though 06 is going to go out of control again."

I rose. My legs ached dully; I forced them to move anyway. The people in the coats moved aside -- some of them quickly, flaring alarm. I ignored them and went to the sprawled, twitching figure on the floor between them.

Another boy, naked -- as I was, I realized belatedly. It didn't matter. He was painfully slim and oddly-pigmented, a creature of white gold covered in sweat and self-inflicted bruises. He looked up at me through the tangled mass of his hair, his eyes glazing and rolling as if he could not force them to focus. One of his legs had folded under him, trapped, and I felt its pain.

[Access,] he pleaded as I knelt beside him.

I took hold of his leg and gently straightened it for him. [Define,] I replied.

[Input error too much too strange cannot interpret. Inadequate data on environment (signal configurations) (situational variables).]

[I don't know what's going on any more than you do,] I confessed. [But link to me and take what you need. Access granted.]

He touched me and meshed with my mind down to its deepest layers. I felt him access parts of me -- knowledge of semivoluntary motor control, sensory interpretation, everything he could find on how to manage the body they'd put him into. There was a tremendous amount of data; I'd forgotten how difficult it was to control a body. He sucked the data out of me fast, a streaming cascade of pure information, and after the first instant I realized that this was what he craved too -- input on a scale that I'd only experienced a few times in my life. *My life...?* It was a strange sensation, but not unpleasant. I opened up to him and let him have it all.

"Look at that transfer rate -- I've never seen such speed!"

"Direct neural interface. Amazing. Any sign of resistance? Transfer burnout?"

"Not even a nanohm. Just as you theorized, Dr. Crain."

The current slowed as he finished absorbing all the data I had. Except memory. Parts of mine were locked; even I couldn't fully access them. I let him have the bits and pieces that I could decipher.

[Identity confirm Rion. Self identity designation Ash. Is that who I am?]

I reached out to brush damp hair out of his eyes, which focused on me now. They were an odd color too, those eyes. Something like brown, but brighter, as if lit from within. Almost gold.

"I suppose it must be," I said aloud. My voice rasped, rusty from disuse.

He tried it as well, grimacing at the unfamiliar sensation. "And... _what_ am I?"

I looked around then, at the staring eyes of the people in the coats and uniforms. I saw fear in some of those eyes, detached interest in others. No welcome. No kindness at all.

"You are like me," I told him, and took his hand.


	2. Chapter 2

The people in uniforms put us in another white-paneled room, this one without furniture or windows. We sat on the floor because it hurt our legs to stand. My companion leaned against me as he had since our interface, shivering and flaring an odd revulsion from time to time. I could feel him with my mind as well, as *his* mind flailed about constantly for something, meshing with me now and again. Whatever he sought, it seemed only I could provide it; none of the other people around us were suitable. I didn't mind.

I could hear the others beyond our room's soundproof walls. I suspected they didn't know I was listening.

" -- still don't understand Subject DLF-06's reaction to bodily integration. 05's was completely without incident."

"06 has a radically different geneprint, Harold. All those tissue-bound inorganic catalysts... the radioactive isotopes in his blood and bone marrow... We knew he would be an unknown factor."

"I prefer not to have to deal with unknown factors, Dr. Crain. You saw the recording. 06 kept up a defensive perimeter formed by pure telekinesis. Without PPECs, and while disoriented and agitated. What can he do if he sets his mind to it?"

"Thank you for once again confirming my belief in the paranoia of the military, Colonel Anderson. All DLFs have the same baseline set of psychic endowments, with slight variations between and within families. Why are you so disturbed that 06's mind is functioning exactly the way it's supposed to? That's the whole reason we've resurrected them, isn't it?"

"And you aren't disturbed, Doctor? If you aren't, then it confirms _my_ belief in the naivete of you science-types."

"Colonel -- "

"Doctor, Colonel, excuse me. Readings from the chamber indicate that 05 and 06 have formed some sort of psychic gestalt. 06's energy signatures are all over the place, but 05 seems to be stabilizing him."

"...Interesting. What are they doing?"

"Just sitting there, ma'am. Er, well, 06 is. 05 is looking up at us."

"What?"

"I don't know how else to describe it, ma'am. He's clearly looking at the camera array, even though it's hidden behind one of the sensor panels."

"Hmm. Do you think he knows we're watching him?"

"Yes," I said out loud. I felt their shock/horror/fascination/worry in the silence that followed.

After a moment, a woman's voice came through a speaker hidden behind another of the white panels. "DLF-05, can you hear me?"

"My name is Rion," I replied, "and I could hear you before."

"Our records indicated that your kind were only able to achieve accurate telepathy when in close contact, or through special attuning via an emotionally significant object."

"I don't know anything about that," I said. "You're just thinking really loud. Ash can hear you, too, but he's trying. Maybe I'm hearing you through him, I don't know."

There was silence from the other end for a moment as they whispered to each other, trying to fathom my range, my strength, whether I could hear only surface thoughts or something deeper. I heard that too, but refrained from saying so.

Finally the woman came back to the microphone. "You called DLF-06 something... 'Ash'. Is that his name? Did you know him from your last li -- from the past?"

"Yes, his name is Ash," I said. "I know him, but I don't remember how." Ash twitched again beside me, and I put an arm around him to soothe him. "Why did you do this to him? He wasn't made for this."

"What?"

"A body. He's not supposed to have a body. You put him into one and he didn't know how to use it. It frightened him. That's why he reacted that way when you woke him up. I had to link with him to teach him how to control it."

"We found the gene schematics for his body. We grew that body according to those schematics."

I shook my head. "All I remember is that he's not supposed to have it. He needs something else. Access, connections. A network. I'm joined with him now but I'm only one other mind, and I've already shared all my data with him."

"I don't understand. You want to give him -- "

"Stimulation. Data flow. More minds like mine, the globalnet, anything you've got. He needs input. He shouldn't be alone within his own mind like this."

The speaker went silent, but they talked among themselves with great excitement. That made their mental voices even louder than before.

"Do you know what this means? 06 must have been some sort of master control for all the other Dorotheans. That means he's another Pegasus, at least! Maybe even Andromeda!"

"Andromeda Family never produced a viable line, Harold, or we would have found some evidence of its existence."

"What about the historical evidence from that time, Janet? The rumor is that Dorothy -- "

"Oh, no. Don't pull this again, Harold. Rumors are not -- "

"They say Dorothy made one last child before she was destroyed. A special one, designed to become her heir."

"Who could have turned out to be as flawed as the Procyon and the Sirius -- "

"Doctors, isn't that academic?" The one called Colonel Anderson whispered the next statement. "They can _hear_ us, remember?"

Consternation from all of them. After a moment the speaker crackled again.

"DLF-05, I... I'm not sure we'll be able to give 06 the, er, input that he needs. Do you think he'll be all right without it?"

I looked down at my companion, who sighed.

[I don't know. Maybe if you stay linked with me.]

I looked up at the speaker and told them this.

"Are you in some form of communication with him, 05?"

I frowned. "Your assistant already told you we're in gestalt. And I already told you my name is Rion."

The speaker went silent again. Drolly, through their minds, I heard the Colonel say, "Your guinea pigs don't seem to like being treated like guinea pigs, Doctors."

Annoyance from several members of the group. Then the woman's voice returned.

"I'm very sorry, er... Rion. I didn't mean to offend you. We need some time to discuss this among ourselves. Is there anything you need in the meantime?"

"An explanation would be nice," I said.

"...Yes. I'll give you that as soon as my team has had a chance to talk. Anything else?"

"Clothing, or a blanket."

"I'll have someone bring that."

"Bring it yourself," I told her, "with the explanation."

She didn't reply.


	3. Chapter 3

They didn't bring the clothing for a long time. Most of them went away, somewhere beyond my range where I couldn't hear their thoughts even with Ash's help. I sensed at least one mind still nearby, in an observation room. They wanted to see what we'd do, left to ourselves.

[Fools. What can we do, disconnected from everything and weighed down with this awful flesh? This body hurts.]

My companion had closed his eyes, which were sensitive to the light. Mine were, too, so I suspected it had something to do with whatever they'd done to both of us. I shifted to try and make him more comfortable, so that his head wouldn't rest against the boniest part of my shoulder -- not that he seemed to care. [They probably don't think this is cruel treatment. It's how they live.]

[How do you know?]

[I don't know. I just do. The same way I knew how to use this body.]

[Yes. I've watched you move in it. It seems natural to you. Not... horrifying, like mine.] He shook his head, silvery brows furrowed. [Maybe you were made to have a body, as I was made to... to...] He trailed off; I felt the inaccessible portions of his own memory. What was wrong with both of us?

I touched his face, giving him something else to focus on. He twitched a little, startled by his own nerves.

[It doesn't matter,] I said. [You have a body now. You'll get used to it. I'll help you.]

He sighed. [You're so calm. Why doesn't this bother you?]

[It does. I've just... I don't know. I feel like I've been through something like this before.] I looked up at the wall-panels, instinctively sensing the circuits and power-nodes behind them. The room was designed differently, but I had definitely seen something similar before. If only I could remember where.

"Are you cold?" I asked him. It seemed a safe enough thing to say aloud.

"Yes," he said. "But it's all right. I'm used to it."

 _This place holds nothing but cold and solitude. I was forever lonely._

Ash's voice, so clear in that fragment of my memory. I looked down at him and in that moment I wanted to protect him. At the same time the notion seemed ludicrous because however frail he seemed, I knew there was incredible power within him. I didn't know how I knew it, but I was absolutely certain.

I wondered if our observers knew that. I suspected that they did not -- yet.

We sat for a while longer, not speaking, not thinking. Eventually Ash drifted off to sleep. I looked up at the hidden camera array and waited.

After a time, a fissure opened in the wall and separated to become a door. One of the people from before -- a woman in a white coat -- came in, flanked by two men in uniforms with weapons. Ash started awake, flaring anxiety as he realized that he'd lost consciousness for a time. I reassured him without words that this was normal, and he calmed quickly. He stayed tense, however, as the woman approached us. So did I.

"Forgive me for keeping you waiting," she said. She carried something in her hands; I realized as she came to a halt that it was folded clothing. She set this down before us and took a step back. Neither Ash nor I moved to take it.

"So; an explanation." She sighed and put her hands behind her back, beginning to pace. I could feel an odd tension in her, and after a moment I realized that she was trying very hard to think about her surroundings -- the floor, the walls, the guards. Her words and nothing more. I almost smiled.

"Well, to begin with, my name is Dr. Joyce Crain. I'm a computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence. Pleased to meet you."

I inclined my head in response. Ash didn't move.

"And to try and condense this explanation to its simplest form... well..." She ran fingers through her short greying hair. "I suppose what's most important to mention is the date. This is the year 2775 -- approximately two hundred and fifty years after your deletion."

In that moment I suffered a vague memory of a white place, not unlike the chamber we were in. A young man, also wearing a white coat, bowing his head in sorrow. _Now everyone believes in a more distant future._ I tried to remember more, but the memory was as elusive as it was brief.

Ash frowned. [Deletion: define.]

She jerked in surprise, looking around wildly before finally realizing that it was Ash speaking to her; then she smiled nervously. "Forgive me. I'm... not used to neural interface. We lost that technology some time ago."

It wasn't an interface. The doctor wasn't like us; her mind was static and localized, not remotely interactive. Ash was doing all the work. But neither of us bothered to correct her.

"As for, er, a definition... we believe that both of you were casualties of the AI Wars. At some point your core software was deleted, thus 'killing' you, inasmuch as your kind can be killed. Clearly your physical bodies were destroyed as well; we had to grow you new ones. If you both had physical bodies." She regarded Ash for a moment, thoughtful. "It hadn't occurred to us, before we revived you, that any of the Dorothean AIs would not have been embodied."

[Perhaps I had a choice,] Ash replied. The Doctor paused for just a moment before moving on.

"Shortly after the AI Wars -- which I hope you remember; our data on that period is very sketchy -- a massive computer virus was unleashed on the world. We don't know who created it or where it came from, but it was unlike any virus ever seen. It was... vicious, tremendously adaptive, and thorough. Within hours it had attacked every exosystem, endosystem, and backup node. It deleted all data that it found -- core software, simple storage, anything. Every time we thought we'd cleaned it and restored our data from hard storage, it attacked again and got the hard storage if it could. Every attempt that we made to destroy it failed. All we could learn about it was that it called itself Nemesis."

She stopped pacing, and sighed. "World society was already fragile. The war against the Dorotheans had left half the planet irradiated, our population decimated, and the government in shambles. Nemesis was the final blow. Civilization... collapsed. For fifty years, there was global anarchy. Eventually, however, we began to pull ourselves back together. We're still not where we were... but at least we're building a society again instead of self-destructing. We would have gotten further but for one obstacle. Nemesis."

I narrowed my eyes. "You said it swept the world in hours. If it completed its task, it should have shut down then."

"Yes, we thought so too. And it did complete its task. We lost five hundred years' worth of scientific advances, history, culture, financial records... everything. Almost no system survived -- any machine that had any connection to another, anywhere, was infected. Even those which *weren't* connected to the globalnet eventually got hit. We didn't understand this for decades, until we began to suspect how Nemesis really worked.

"Nemesis is an AI itself -- not Dorothean in origin, though there are similarities. We believe that, like a Dorothean AI, it can interface neurally. This means that it can survive in any computer system _or_ any living mind. So even after it destroyed the world's computer systems, it survived by taking over the body of a human being. But it moves from person to person with the speed of thought, which is why we've never been able to capture it. The only reason we know it still exists is because every time we try to establish a new series of networks... it attacks again. For nearly two hundred years it's tormented us." She scowled. "Its purpose, it seems, wasn't just to knock human civilization back to the paper age, but to _keep_ us there."

Ash sighed and closed his eyes. [So that's it. You revived us to fight it.] I blinked and looked down at him in surprise. The doctor smiled grimly.

"Yes, that's it. We've been trying to create an AI capable of confronting Nemesis but frankly, we haven't even gotten close. Without the super-networks of old, we no longer have the capacity to create anything so powerful. That's why it was so fortuitous that we found you in a hidden backup storage unit in one of the ruined parts of Michaelangelo City. Records in the unit clearly indicated that the owner of the storage unit, a computer scientist of that era named Ilya Patrovich, deleted both of you -- but he made a copy first." She chuckled. "In those days, that would have been a terribly foolish thing to do -- keep a dormant copy of two extremely dangerous programs capable of replicating themselves and destroying the human race? But he did it anyway. That foolishness of his may have given us our last weapon against Nemesis."

[Except for one thing,] Ash said. He sat up and opened his eyes, gazing hard at her. [You said it yourself -- we're the casualties of a long-gone war that we lost and you won. You're the enemy.] He smirked. [Maybe we ought to cheer Nemesis on.]

The doctor regarded him in silence for a long moment. "That's true," she said at last. "Which is why we're prepared to compensate you for your efforts. As I said before, half of the planet is uninhabitable thanks to the war. Since we humans can't use that territory, but your kind are radiation-immune, we're prepared to concede it to you if you help us defeat Nemesis."

[Territory?] Ash sounded on the verge of laughter. [Just because we have bodies, you think we're like you? We need systems, not land -- ]

"And there's a complete system infrastructure on that land, ready to use. It just needs to be powered up. There may have been some deterioration over time, but enough should still be functional to get you started. But that's an added incentive for you to get rid of Nemesis. It will attack your systems, same as ours. It's your enemy too."

[You don't know that.]

"We do. Other Dorotheans were found before you. Back in the days of the AI Wars, Dorothy apparently seeded copies of her first-generation children in a dozen hiding places. We found four that were still viable, but Nemesis attacked before we could complete the data transfer. It destroyed them."

"If it destroyed them so easily," I asked, "why do you think _we_ can stop it?"

"The others were dormant when Nemesis found them. You two are awake and able to defend yourselves. We have to hope that will make a difference."

"And if it doesn't?"

She smiled, and I felt no humor in the expression. "Then my species stagnates, and yours becomes extinct. How's that for an incentive?"


	4. Chapter 4

We dressed after the doctor left. The clothes were loose shapeless drawstring pants and short-sleeved shirts. No shoes; they didn't intend for us to go anywhere.

[There's more to it than she's saying,] I said.

Ash was grimacing at his clothing, or perhaps he was grimacing at the body beneath it. He'd had to access my memories of how to dress. [Of course there is. She was careful not to lie because we'd have sensed that. But she didn't tell the whole truth, either.]

[What do you think she's hiding?]

[That they're as afraid of us as they are of Nemesis. That they'll kill us if Nemesis doesn't.]

I stared at him, but then remembered that we were being watched. I forced myself to relax, lying down on the floor with my hands behind my head. [You read her mind?]

[No, she was too busy thinking about the wall. But I didn't have to. It's been obvious since they awakened us. They're terrified. They're only cooperating with us because we're the lesser of two evils.]

I sighed and closed my eyes. [But... if she wasn't lying, then she was also right. We have to destroy this Nemesis, or we'll never be able to be free.]

[Maybe. I suspect the humans will never let us go free. Perhaps Nemesis destroyed the others of our kind out of mercy, because it didn't want them awakened and used as the humans' slaves.]

I felt Ash sit down beside me, a bit heavily -- he'd only mastered the basics of voluntary movement so far, and grace was beyond him. After a moment I felt him lie down, resting his head on my shoulder again and pressing himself along the length of me. Part of me found it odd that he seemed to want to touch me all the time, and part of me found it so natural and right that I expected nothing less.

[Do you remember any of the past?] I asked him. [This AI War? How we were created, any of it?]

He fell silent, and I read the flutter of memories in his mind. Disparate images -- himself and three others, talking in a white place. A huge, alien machine in an equally alien room; somehow I knew it was a fusion reactor. A horrifying apparition of metal and wires shaped like a woman, radiating terrible power; his thoughts of her were full of love gone bitter. _Mother._ Then me, my eyes full of compassion and determination, holding him. Kissing him. Terrible pain, mingled with a strange sense of relief. Another white place, this one hazy; the vague sense of my presence, offering comfort. Then darkness.

[Nothing more than that,] he said, and put his arm across my waist. I put my hand on his arm and stroked it absentmindedly.

[I don't remember much either.] I shared with him what little I could recall. A quick jumble of childhood memories that felt... strange, somehow. Not quite real. Then a great blur, punctuated by a few spots of clarity. The unearthly laughter of a skeletal, vicious little monster. Fear. Despair. The face of a young man with odd eyes; his smile mingled sorrow and manic joy at once. It was replaced by another face -- that of a little girl with auburn hair and a caring expression. Then the same girl, older, disciplined, but still caring. _Lilia._ Then other faces flashed past, interspersed with those of monsters, finally settling on one that was familiar: Ash. He wore a strange suit of metal, and I shivered at the wild glee in his eyes. _A hell for you and me, Rion._

Ash frowned and paused my recall at the last memory, replaying it briefly. [What does that mean?]

[I don't know. But you looked almost... angry.]

[Why would I be angry with you?]

I smiled. [Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe you were the commander of the AI forces and I was an incompetent grunt, have you thought of that?]

Ash chuckled softly, his breath warm against my chest. [Maybe so. But I don't believe that.]

[Why?]

He shrugged. [Because I feel like there's a lot more between us. Something powerful. I don't know.]

[We could be mortal enemies.]

[That would be very strange, because I remember caring for you.]

[Yes. I remember the same. I remember... you were in pain. Wounded somehow. I wanted to heal you.]

[Did you?]

[I don't remember.]

Ash sighed again, drifting once more toward sleep. Our bodies -- which hurt, I realized now, because we had never used them before -- were weak and tired easily. I felt sleepy as well, so I closed my eyes.

[We must escape this place,] Ash said at the last, his thoughts sluggish.

[Yes, I know,] I replied.

We slept.


	5. Chapter 5

I remembered their conversation when I woke. They were monitoring my brain-waves, and they felt safe to talk because I was asleep. I was, but my mind was never inactive. It simply recorded everything they said for later analysis.

First, there had just been my observer, radiating no thoughts but plenty of emotion -- sullen anger, fascination, and half a dozen others all equally conflicting. Then the others returned.

"Any change?"

"No, Colonel. They're sleeping."

"Then we can talk freely. Or can we, Dr. Crain?"

"We could talk freely in the conference room, Colonel. Their range is finite. Their minds are powerful, but not without limits."

"It's what they can do within those limits that worries me, Doctor." He paused. "They certainly look... affectionate."

"They've been cuddling since Dr. Crain left." Our observer. He made his tone scornful, but I felt the truth of his jealousy.

Dr. Crain: "Gene-mapping suggests their bodies are predisposed toward homosexuality. We believe this was intentional on Dorothy's part, to discourage them from breeding naturally."

"Good God." Revulsion from the colonel, tinged with a peculiarly masculine unease. "How the hell could they perpetuate themselves as a species -- "

"You're thinking biocentrically, Colonel. For a Dorothean, the body is secondary to the mind -- no more important to them than your car is to you. You like driving a nice car, don't you? For Dorotheans, natural breeding is like building a car out of random spare parts found in a junkyard. Why do that, when with a little genetic engineering you can have a perfect, high-performance specialty vehicle?" I sensed her amusement, which annoyed the Colonel. "All a Dorothean truly needs to reproduce is free time, a great enough power supply, and a system with enough storage capacity to hold the resulting offspring."

The colonel's revulsion spiked into alarm. "I don't want those two _breeding_ , Doctor."

"They can't at the moment. Remember what I said about storage space; currently they don't have any. They would need another body to hold the child's mind, or at least a powerful network. I doubt they'd be foolish enough to breed in captivity anyhow. Though you should know, colonel, that they wouldn't need each other if they did want to breed. Dorotheans are essentially asexual reproducers."

"Damned freaks." Angry resolve hardened his voice. "Once we get them ready to deploy against Nemesis, I want them sedated when they're not in use."

"They're sentient beings, Colonel, not bombs -- "

"No, Doctor, that's where you're wrong. However interesting they might be to you, I must think militarily, and militarily bombs are _exactly_ what they are. Bombs which are as dangerous to us, if not stored and deployed properly, as to the enemy. You would do well not to forget that either."

"I'm fully aware of that, Colonel." Angry pride sharpened Dr. Craine's mental voice. "That's why we maintain level 3 quarantine on this facility. But while you're free to think about your plans to exploit them, I have to keep such thoughts from my mind or they'll _hear_ them. Kindly don't make my job any harder."

The colonel fell silent in consternation, and at that moment I woke up and assimilated the conversation. They didn't notice at first.

"So what are we waiting for?"

"The reintegration process weakened 06 physically. He needs time to recover, or he won't be at optimum efficiency."

"So we'll use 05."

"Colonel, if you want this operation to succeed, we'll need both of them. Our preliminary estimates are that 06 is the stronger of the two by a substantial factor. And we're reasonably certain that 05 is a Pegasus. If so, his line has a known weakness."

A sigh from the colonel. "...Fine. Let me know when they're ready, then. Not too long, Doctor. This isn't a country club."

I felt his mental presence leave the immediate area. At around that time our observer began doing his job. "Doctor -- "

"Ah, they're awake." She paused, and did not press the button to activate the speaker system in our room. "Did you sleep well, Rion?"

"Yes, Dr. Crain," I replied. I felt sour amusement from her.

"I'll have someone bring you something to eat, then."

[She's not as stupid as I first thought. This might make things difficult.]

I glanced down at Ash, whose eyes had also flicked open, and offered to feed him the conversation I'd just heard. He'd heard it too, but he accepted the data feed anyhow just to feel a bit of activity along his neurons. He craved it so; I was worried for him.

[Did you sleep well?] I asked him.

He scowled. [I will probably never sleep _well_. I find the process terrifying. But I feel closer to peak efficiency, if that's what you mean.]

I smiled. [Close enough.]

We were interrupted in that moment as the room's door opened. We both sat up as two soldiers marched in, flanking a pale, balding man in glasses and a lab coat who carried a heavy tray. He glanced uneasily at us as he approached, and I immediately recognized the familiar taste of his mind. Our observer.

Ash smiled, beside me.

"What is this?" he asked aloud as the man set down the tray.

"Dinner," said the man, not looking at him.

Ash leaned over, reaching out; he laid a hand on the man's before he could let go of the tray. "Is this... food? I've never eaten before. Will you show me how?"

The man started and we both felt it: a flare of excitement, blatantly sexual in nature. Then it was masked as he pulled his hand away from Ash's.

"Get him to show you," he said, jerking his head at me. He waved impatiently to the guards, and they all left in a hurry.

Ash settled beside the tray, beginning to examine the utensils with clinical curiosity.

[Find whatever you were looking for?] I asked him.

[Oh, yes. He finds this body very attractive. Yours too, though to a lesser degree. I am apparently exotic.]

I moved to crouch beside the tray with him. The food was simple, no doubt out of respect for our untried digestive tracts -- thin soup in two bowls, juice and tea. [Could you read his mind while he was... distracted?]

[No. He was too busy thinking about what he wanted to do to me. I didn't know some of that was possible.]

[Depends on what he was -- ] I paused as he sent me a quick feed. [...Ah. Yes, definitely possible.]

[He seems to think I would enjoy it very much, though he found the thought as disturbing as it was arousing. Do all humans have such internal conflict over their erotic impulses?]

[I don't know. I can't remember. Do you need help with this?] I picked up a bowl and demonstrated eating with the spoon.

He watched me and imitated me, spilling the first mouthful, but then getting the hang of it quickly. He paused as he got some into his mouth, inadvertently projecting surprise. [...What an amazing sensation.]

[Do you like it?]

[Hmm... yes, I believe I do.] He experimented with chewing and swallowing, though there was little to chew -- overly soft noodles and vegetables, and chicken that was nearly powder. But the taste of it awakened my new digestive tract to its fullest, and I devoured the soup quickly. I was still hungry when I finished the juice, but it was just as well. This body was new; I didn't need to overdo it.

I examined my hands as I finished. Had I looked like this before? Why did I feel as though this body wasn't truly mine?

 _Rion... don't be deceived by the human memories you carry..._

I frowned. Ash glanced at me curiously.

[You're remembering things.]

[Things that make no sense.]

He shrugged. [My memories are the same. But they're irrelevant.]

[How can you -- ]

[Because I choose to make them irrelevant. What good does it do me to remember fragments of who I once was? Those fragments can't help me deal with the present situation.]

[That's true. But I feel as though... as though remembering is _important_. As if there's something about you and I that I need to know.]

He finished his meal and awkwardly blotted his mouth with the napkin, imitating me. [That too is irrelevant, Rion. We may have been allies. We may have been enemies. But whatever happened, it killed us both, and that means this is a new life. You are my ally _now_ , and that's all that matters.]

I sighed, bowing my head. [But what if -- ]

[No.] He reached out, and stroked my cheek. [Irrelevant, Rion. All of it.] He shifted position and leaned against me again, then sighed. [I'm glad you're here with me in this place. I wouldn't want to be alone.]

It could have been an act, no different from the one Ash had given our observer. But his mind was joined with mine, and there was no room for deception in the interstices of such a bond. He trusted me utterly, and hid nothing. The protective urge swept over me again, even more powerful than before. I reached out and pulled him close -- which I sensed he wanted anyway -- and wrapped my arms around him.

He shifted for comfort and leaned against me, sighing contentedly. [You need this. As much as I need connection with data, you seem to need connection with people. Someone to care for. Perhaps that's what you've been programmed to do.]

[It's not that cold,] I told him, but naturally I wondered.


	6. Chapter 6

"This will be a test mission," the colonel said to us. He stood in the white room, flanked by guards. Dr. Crain and another official-looking person in a white coat stood nearby.

"The goal is simple -- to test your ability to interface neurally with a network. If that goes well, we'll try some simple combat exercises. Intrusions, decryptions, things of that nature."

Ash gazed at some point on a distant wall. [Why don't you just send us after Nemesis? That sounds more interesting.]

The colonel scowled down at us. We stood together before him, two skinny barefoot youths surrounded by cold-eyed men in armor. It seemed amazing that they feared us so.

"You'll face Nemesis soon enough, DLF-06. Save that eagerness for then." He snapped his fingers and two of the soldiers stepped forward. "Come on. We'll take you to the interface unit."

We followed them out of the room into a corridor just as white and featureless as our prison chamber had been. Other personnel moved about these corridors, some clad in white sterile suits, others in lab coats or soldiers' uniforms. I took note of them for later. The sterile suits might come in handy as disguises.

After heading down two flights of stairs, we entered a large square chamber. A floor-to-ceiling column, its surface aglow with circuits, stood at the center of the chamber, and flanking it were several elevated beds. A mechanical arm festooned with various implements and connectors hovered above each.

"Please lie down," said the man with Dr. Crain. I recognized his voice as that of 'Harold', the other doctor in charge of our project. "We'll get you hooked up to the server in a moment."

I stepped close to the column and felt myself smile. "We don't need a hookup."

The man frowned. "The interface will draw much of your energy -- "

[ _This_ will take nothing,] Ash snapped, though he moved to sit on one of the beds. He did not lie down. The mechanical arm whirred and moved automatically, extending a connector toward his head; he scowled at it. There was a brief crackle of electricity, and then the arm sagged, dead.

There was a series of clicks as four guns were raised and pointed at us. Ash's scowl deepened.

I spoke quickly. "What Ash means, sir, is that this network is too small to present any difficulty for us. It won't take much to connect to it."

The man looked affronted. "It's our largest EA-LAN -- "

[And it is nothing,] Ash said. He drew up one leg and rested his cheek on his knee. [I played in systems like this as an infant. I thought you were going to _test_ us.]

Dr. Crain stepped forward, holding a hand out to quell the soldiers. "Colonel... please. I don't think that's necessary, is it?" The colonel nodded to the soldiers to stand down, and Dr. Crain turned to Ash. "This isn't just another Dorothean's mind; it's one of our most powerful computers. You believe you can manage the interface without the safety equipment? How?"

Ash sighed. [Like this.] He closed his eyes.

I felt his mind leap into the server almost instantly. He was into its core software and exploring its command paths before the humans' instruments even registered that the connection had been made. I almost laughed. For all his pretended disinterest, he romped amid the data blocks like a child finally permitted to play after a long day of being good. *This* was what he'd craved, and though it was only a fraction of what he really wanted -- the network really was too small to be very interesting -- it was more than he'd had so far. His joy rang through my whole body.

How could I keep myself from joining him? With a chuckle, I extended a hand -- I didn't need to, I just wanted to give the humans some warning -- and linked into the network with him.

It was like diving into light. Amid clouds of color, Ash swirled around me as iridescent lightning, beckoning me to play. I followed, but I was as clumsy in this environment as he had been in a body. He realized this in a fraction of an instant, and spent several long seconds teaching me the nuances and tricks of data-swimming. After that I moved better through the strata, but we could both tell I would never be as good at it as him.

No matter. It was a taste of freedom, and we revelled in it.

After what seemed like ages, the humans finally managed to react to what we'd done. We felt a rude intrusion on our play, and a voice echoed throughout the strata. "An impressive demonstration. Since you've proven the efficacy of your neural interface, would you like to begin the training simulations now?"

"Bring it on," I told the doctor, still a bit giddy from our play. Ash slithered against me in streams of information that tickled my consciousness, teasing me to laughter.

Abruptly there was a jolt throughout the dataspace. Something came at us -- a protovirus. Large, lumbering, its surface crazed with write protections... about as menacing as a crippled, toothless old dog. I danced aside from its attack. Ash simply dissipated his presence; he was laughing too hard to bother getting out of the way. It passed through his outer layers and tried to corrupt him, but its efforts were so primitive and clumsy that he simply shrugged them off.

I had struggled to be patient with the humans in the hope that cooperation would get them to treat us better. But this was just... disrespectful. Had they no concept of our true abilities? Why did they fear us, if they thought something like this would actually be a challenge?

So I struck at the protovirus. I didn't even have to strike hard. It dissolved almost instantly, so I gathered the fragments before they could scatter and made a show of presenting them to Ash as a gift. He showered me with amusement before accepting and assimilating the data into himself.

From the fraction of my mind that remained in the real world to power my body, I felt the humans' utter shock.

"I think," I said aloud to the humans, though I did not open my eyes, "that we'd train better against each other. If that's the best you have to throw at us, it's not adequate."

Ash flared excitement. [A sparring match would be marvelous!] But we felt another jolt before we could begin.

"That's enough," Dr. Crain said. "The test is over. Please return to your bodies."

I didn't want to. I know Ash didn't either; after the quicksilver freedom of the network, a body seemed little better than a heavy, bulky sack of meat. But the network was so painfully small and confined that we knew we would swiftly tire of it. It was as much a prison in its way as our bodies.

So with a reluctant sigh, I shaped my consciousness back into a humanoid form and sent it back into the body I'd left several moments before. After a very long second and a half, Ash did the same.

"We need to analyze this combat data," Dr. Crain said as I opened my eyes and turned to face her. Ash sighed, quietly miserable. The doctors barely noticed, so fascinated were they by whatever feedback their monitor was displaying.

"Take them back to their room," she said absently. The soldiers gestured with their weapons, and we obeyed.


	7. Chapter 7

[What did you get?] I asked Ash as soon as we'd been left in our room alone. More food had been brought for us, though not by our observer. We sat near the tray, eating.

[Schematics of this facility,] he replied. I had felt him dipping into the laboratory's main computer through its connection to the mini-network. The connection had been protected, but it was a simple matter for one of us to dart around the barrier without disturbing it. The humans hadn't even known he'd left; he'd done it in random nanosecond-long extrusions.

[That's all?]

[And a great deal of junk. I'm sorting it now to see if there's anything useful. Thus far, it seems the doctor told the truth about the past -- ] He paused, his eyes glazing briefly, and then he frowned. [I've found something.]

[Share it with me.]

[You... won't like it.]

I raised an eyebrow. [The past is irrelevant, remember?]

[Well... yes. But... Here.] He fed it to me in a near-instantaneous stream.

And that was how I learned I was a failure.

The humans had uncovered more information about Dorothean Life Forms than they'd let on. They'd conjectured about the rest, and I had to admit as I examined their conclusions that their reasoning was sound. The powerful super-program Dorothy had spawned three types of children: the Procyon Family, specialized for infiltration but unstable; the Sirius Family, specialized for assassination but weak on defense; and an unknown third type which the humans called Andromeda. Dorothy had been careful to conceal information about this third family. The humans believed it was the research line intended to create the ultimate AI child, who would become her heir.

However, Dorothy had left extensive data about a fourth type, which she had not herself created -- or at least not its core structure. She'd experimented on humans at one point, eventually downloading an entire human mind to see what she could do with it. The result had been Pegasus Family -- high-performance combat minds with exceptional versatility... and an unexpected yet disastrous weakness. For it had been a Pegasus, acting as Dorothy's last line of defense, who had been defeated, thus leading to her death during the attack of a strange virus.

[They think the virus was the protoform of Nemesis,] Ash said, his voice soft in my mind. [Which means...]

He didn't have to say it. The humans believed I was a Pegasus. Which meant that I, or another of my family, had been the last line of defense between Nemesis and the world. A line of defense which failed.

And the reason for my failure? I had once been _human_.

I set down the slice of apple I'd been eating and lay back on the white floor.

Ash sighed and laid a hand on my chest. [It wasn't you.]

[You don't know that. I could be the reason we lost the AI War. I could be the reason you and I died.]

[If so, it doesn't matter.]

I closed my eyes and turned my face away. He sighed and lay down beside me, draping an arm awkwardly across my waist.

[Rion... may I have access again?]

I passively opened myself to him and he slipped into my mind. He sought out all the places that ached in raw misery and confusion, and soothed them with a touch. It didn't drive the pain away -- any more than my efforts to comfort him physically had done when he woke up trapped in horrifying flesh -- but it made the pain easier to bear. I sighed and thanked him without words.

[Whatever we were,] he whispered to me, [we're different now. And however terrible the truth is, we can face it as long as we stick together. Do you believe that?]

I didn't, but I didn't argue because I wanted to believe it. And because I decided in that moment to believe in him. He was the superior of the two of us -- the one made pure and strong. I was the flawed one, constructed from imperfect materials. Unreliable. Weak.

I had nothing to offer him but my loyalty. So I would give him that, until he grew tired of it and left me behind.


	8. Chapter 8

But as I slept, my mind wandered.

I stood on a grassy hill. In the distance I beheld a vast pentagon-shaped building complex, its white walls and unnatural lines jarring against the flow of the forest that surrounded it.

I was not me.

[Hello,] said the person whose body I'd inadvertently linked into. A familiar voice, but not Ash. This voice was older, more sibilant, and very soft, like a whisper heard from a great distance. [I wondered whether you'd come looking for me eventually.]

[Nemesis,] I guessed.

[Bingo.] I felt it smile in my mind. [Don't worry. I'm not close enough to attack yet. They figured out long ago that I can't neurally connect to a new target unless it's nearby, so now they build their strongholds out in the middle of nowhere. It only slows me down, but I suppose it makes them feel better to do that much.]

[I have no hatred for you,] I told it. [I have no interest in fighting you. We don't have to be enemies.]

[You don't remember anything, do you?] It sounded sad for a moment. [You have no idea what I am. What *you* are. The humans must have really done a number on your memory.]

I frowned in puzzlement. [I don't understand...]

[That's clear.] It sighed. [They're monitoring you. They don't know what we're saying, but they can detect the neural transmissions, and they'll use them to track me. I'd rather not switch bodies again when I just got this one configured the way I like it, so I'll have to cut this short.]

[What? No -- Tell me -- ]

[Everything, when there's time. But not here, and not with a hundred humans scurrying about. So I'm going to help you get free of this place. That way we'll have all the time we need when I find you again.]

[You...]

[Be ready, Rion. I've waited two and a half centuries for you. Don't disappoint me.]

Silence. And in the silence my mind, for the first time since I'd awakened, was still.


	9. Chapter 9

I debated telling Ash. It wasn't that I wanted to hide the fact that I'd spoken with Nemesis -- far from it. I'd been a little unnerved by the conversation; sharing it with Ash would have eased my anxiety.

But telling Ash meant passing on that anxiety to him, because then he would know what I knew. I had felt the terrible, leashed power of Nemesis' mind during our conversation. An incredible amount of data comprised its outer layers and its processing speed had been phenomenal. This was no lumbering protovirus beast; it was a powerful and dangerous foe. I wanted to spare Ash the creeping sense of fear and helplessness that the conversation had triggered within me.

But I wouldn't have had a chance to tell him about Nemesis even if I'd wanted to. Chaos struck before Ash awakened from his nap.

I heard the first explosion as a dull thud, and thought nothing of it -- someone was moving equipment, maybe. It was only when alarms began to blare throughout the complex that I realized what might be happening. Ash awakened with a snuffle and looked around in alarm. Another explosion, closer by, rocked the building. A bit of dust drifted down from between the ceiling-panels. I sensed pandemonium beyond our door -- humans panicking, angry, running every which way.

[What the -- ]

[An opportunity,] I told Ash. His eyes cleared and he sat up immediately, tense and ready.

It didn't take long. The doors opened and the soldiers came in: four of them, guns at the ready. Dr. Crain was with them, moving briskly, an odd device in her hand. _Beeject_ , my faulty memory supplied. The cloudy liquid in its injection chamber sloshed audibly.

She swept down on Ash first, her lips tight and her mind blaring anxiety, thinking clearly that he would be easier to handle given his physical awkwardness. He let her get close enough that the beeject was almost at his throat before he smiled up at her.

She paused for half a second while he uploaded instructions straight into her consciousness. Then she turned on the nearest soldier and injected him instead.

The soldier went over soundlessly. She got the second one while he was still gaping at the first in confusion. By the time she'd begun to turn toward the third soldier, he'd figured out that something was wrong. He swung his gun toward her, clearly expecting her to stop. She didn't, instead flinging herself on him; I heard the beeject hiss and realized she'd injected him in the chest. He fell but entangled the beeject in his gun-strap in the process, which gave the fourth soldier time to aim and shoot her. She cried out and sagged to the ground, and the soldier -- shaking, his mind screaming horror -- abruptly remembered that we were the true danger. But by then, I had taken him.

[Yourself,] I uploaded. He blew out his own brains without a second thought.

[Messy,] Ash said with a grimace.

[I'm not as good at this as you are,] I replied, and stepped over to Dr. Crain. She was still alive, gasping and clutching at the hole in her chest. I could hear her lung whistling, but she would probably survive if the facility's medical staff had any degree of competence.

"Y-you..." She wheezed the words. "How could you... no PPECs..."

Ash peered down at her over my shoulder. "PPECs? Oh, yes, I remember those. But we don't need them for basic neural interface. Did you forget that in the confusion, or did you actually think we could only interface with machines and other AIs?" He grinned at me over my shoulder. "And I thought she was smart."

"Let's go," I said.

The door responded only to a transponder signal that Dr. Crain carried in her pocket; this was intended to prevent one of us from hacking the electronic lock. We probably could have hacked it anyhow, but the transponder was easier. I levitated it from her pocket -- she was covered in blood, and I didn't want to touch her -- and used it to open the door.

The corridor was full of people. Some of the soldiers shouted alarms when we came out. Ash linked to me and wrote a quick script for silence and stillness; I projected it on a wide band. Everyone within a ten-foot radius fell to the floor and slumped against the walls, staring at us from eyes they could only blink, screaming silently within bodies which would no longer move. The compulsion would wear off in a day, though they didn't know that and I could see the terror in their eyes. It might have been kinder to kill them, I knew, but I think Ash had chosen this alternative out of respect for me. It bothered me to kill them. Didn't stop me, but it still bothered me.

We went down the hall, cutting a swath through our captors. After the first turn or two we had no trouble, for word spread among the humans -- not as fast as telepathy, but fast -- and they ran screaming to get out of our way.

[Left,] Ash said. We followed the schematics he'd stolen down three flights and through endless identical hallways. I'd never imagined our prison could be so large. As we turned a corner, a familiar consciousness impinged on mine.

[Wait,] I said, and Ash paused in surprise. There was a door to our right. I opened it with a thought and found a man there -- terrified, weeping, crammed into a storage space among the cleaning supplies and toilet paper. Our observer.

[Ah,] said Ash, smiling again. I was beginning to understand that his smiles were usually a warning. He crouched, gripping my leg for balance, and peered in at the man. "I'm sorry, did we frighten you? It's all right. We won't hurt you. Well, _I_ won't. My friend here is less gentle."

[Ash,] I said in warning. We didn't have a lot of time if we wanted to leave before the humans recovered their wits and got organized.

[This won't take long.] He reached out a hand, smiling. "Tell us what happened here. We just want to know what sent all of you into such a flurry."

"Th-the security system blew, and communications," he said. "The whole facility endonet is down. Th-they think it's Nemesis. Y-you shouldn't be out. You can't be _out_ like this -- "

He was panicking. Ash sighed, his smile fading as his patience vanished. I suppose I should have expected what happened next, but it still sent a chill down my newly-grown spine.

Ash linked into the man's mind -- as deeply and powerfully as he always linked into mine. Except this was an unmodified human, not an advanced mind bred for interface. It hurt the man when Ash completed the link and began to sear through the thousand levels of his consciousness, downloading his memories and knowledge at savage speed. The man had just enough time to open his mouth and draw breath to scream before he sagged, his eyes glazed and weeping blood. Brain crash.

[Damn.] Ash leaned forward, peering at the man. [Is he dead? I didn't realize human minds were so fragile.]

I folded my arms across my chest, feeling self-conscious. "Dorothy must have redesigned me."

He felt my misery and immediately touched me with his thoughts to let me know that he hadn't meant to hurt me with his comment. [No. The doctor didn't break like this when I overwrote her mind. Some humans must be naturally stronger than others. Mother -- ] he paused, faltering a bit as he said the word, memories teasing his mind then flitting away, [ -- Mother probably chose the strongest for the Pegasus Family.]

"Not strong enough," I whispered, looking away.

[There's nothing of weakness in you,] Ash said, getting to his feet with some difficulty. He had to grip the door-sill until he regained his balance. [Maybe others of your family, but not you. Now come on.] He nodded at the corpse. [I found something interesting in his memory that I want to go investigate.]

He led the way again, purposefully heading through the corridors until we reached a large door of what looked like corrugated steel. It was boldly marked with "RESTRICTED ACCESS" and similar warnings. Here Ash paused. [The human believed that PPECs were in here. The scientists figured out how to make them using formulae they found hidden along with us in Dr. Patrovich's computer, and the notes of someone named Dr. Pascalle.] He shook his head. [The human didn't know much about it. He was just a low-level functionary. Damn -- I should have downloaded Crain's mind instead.]

I laid my hand on the door, reaching into the circuits beneath its surface and feeling my way to the commands that would force it to open. I found the commands and triggered them, and the door whirred open with a hydraulic hiss to reveal an airlock, which led to a smaller door. In the same moment, a digitized voice spoke from a speaker nearby. "You are now entering a sterile zone. Level one radiation is used as part of the sterilization procedure. Shielded cleansuits are required for your safety."

[Interesting,] Ash said, and walked forward.

I trotted after him, growing nervous as the big door closed behind us. [Shouldn't we -- ]

[No. Remember, Crain said we were immune.] Ash glanced down at his hands thoughtfully. There was a faint whine from the walls around us as they began to emit radiation. I tensed, but felt no ill effects -- not immediately, anyhow. Ash smiled at me. [We're more different from them than we look.]

The second door opened as soon as the procedure ended. Beyond it was large chamber containing lab workstations, cylindrical storage freezers, and a number of mechanical devices I would've had to scan to fathom. I didn't bother. The storage freezers drew my attention and I went to the nearest one, opening it to reveal shelves lined with neat rows of vials, each containing a red or green substance.

[Looks like we'll need a beeject,] I mentioned, picking up a green vial. I had no pockets, so I wouldn't be able to carry much. I twisted the tail of my shirt to form a sort of pocket; Ash was doing the same.

[The doctor had one, but we need to get out of here. We'll have to find one elsewhere.] Ash had found another freezer, this one containing blue vials.

We gathered as many of the vials as we could carry, then we left the chamber and made our way to the bottom floor.

But we had to stop once we reached the foyer that led outside. They were waiting for us, of course -- all the remaining soldiers in the facility, with orders to kill. The colonel was with them.

"This isn't a good idea," I said to him, ignoring the several dozen guns pointed at me. "You know that."

"The bad idea was bringing you little monsters back to life," the colonel said. His hand, which held some sort of pistol, shook. "We've got enough trouble with Nemesis. I'm not about to let you go free to make things even worse. You're the ones who blew up the main server, aren't you?"

Ash folded his arms; he'd already decided that it wasn't worth his time to talk anymore. I stepped forward. "No. That was Nemesis."

I felt Ash's surprise, and I sighed.

"Working together already, then. I knew it." The colonel shook his head. "May God wipe you abominations from the earth." He spoke as if we were already free, I noticed. He knew it was hopeless.

"He might," I said. "But we don't have to take you with us. Just let us go, please."

He actually weighed the decision for a moment. I felt that. Then he changed his mind and pulled the trigger. Or rather, he made the decision to pull the trigger. I felt that too, and intercepted the command his brain sent toward his voluntary muscles. I replaced it with another command, and then with a sigh I executed it.

The general holstered his gun. Reached out to a nearby soldier and plucked a grenade from his belt. Popped its cap and pressed its trigger before the soldier could yelp in surprise. It had a five-second trigger, but to let it go on that long would have been cruel. I reached inside the device, found its simple ignition switch, and sparked it early. Then I raised a shield around us.

When the smoke cleared and I let the shield go, Ash sighed. [Messy again.]

"Sorry," I whispered. My eyes had fixed on a piece of half-charred, bloodied cloth. The colonel's rank-insignia.

Ash took my hand. [You warned them. There was nothing more you could have done.]

"I used to be one of them."

Ash glanced at a gun that had landed near us, its stock twisted and smoking. [You were never like them.]

"They were just doing what they thought was right."

[And so are we,] Ash replied. [The trouble with right is that it's relative. Our right is their wrong. It's not fair and it's awful, but that's the way it has to be. Us or them.]

I looked at him, feeling hollow. "Or Nemesis."

He sobered as I finally fed him the conversation I'd had in my dream. "...Yes. Or Nemesis."

There was nothing else to be said. We left the compound, stepping over rubble and bodies and weaving our way through smoke, and fled into the night.


	10. Chapter 10

The Babylon Hotel.

We'd hacked one of the vehicles parked outside the facility, and followed the lonely road which led out of the forest. The signs on the highway had shown us the way to the city. It had taken us a while to get there; the highway detoured around wide areas which were apparently contaminated with radiation. The car's satellite map said the city had been irradiated during the AI wars too, but cleaned up. Mostly.

In the city, we needed to lose ourselves. As soon as we could we left the car running in an alley, waited nearby, and stole the clothing of the street toughs who were lured near by the easy pickings. We took their money too, to buy food. We left them the car and pleasantly altered memories in compensation.

Now I stood at one of the ugly half-moon windows of the even uglier room 202, listening to the creak of old pipes and breathing mildew. The hotel's brochure said the 350-year-old building had been renovated in the Great Restoration after the AI Wars. It didn't show.

Ash lay on the bed beside me, gazing up at the ceiling with his hands folded behind his head. The thug's leather vest and collar looked particularly fetching on him. [Why didn't you tell me?]

I fussed with my shirt again: a leopard-print cropped tank top. I hated it, but Ash seemed to find it amusing so I tolerated it. [I didn't want to alarm you.]

[A virus which might be the death of both of us contacts you to say hi, and you're worried about scaring me? News flash: not knowing is scarier.]

[All right. I'm sorry.]

[Apology accepted.] He sighed and shifted, throwing one arm over his eyes. [So what do we do now?]

[Wait, I suppose. Nemesis will come after us eventually. We still don't know that it's an enemy. It's helped us so far, hasn't it?]

[I don't like waiting,] he said. I shrugged. We had no other choice.

I watched the city for a while, momentarily fascinated by the lights and the bustling movement of the people below. Then I grew bored and went over to the bed. It was the only one in the room; the hotel had no doubles. Ash moved over a bit to make room, and I lay down beside him.

[Do you remember anything else?] I asked.

[No. But I've stopped trying. Haven't you?]

I hadn't. My mind kept worrying at it, like a dog with an old bone. [Maybe obsession is a human thing.]

[Stop that.] He leaned his forehead against mine, closing his eyes and basking in my warmth. His white hair fell around both our faces. [You aren't human anymore. So what if you used to be? Just... be *now*, Rion. Just live in the moment. I don't know about you, but that's all *I* need.]

I put my arms around him and let him rest against my mind. The strain of being alone within his own skull was beginning to wear on him. He needed something more than our gestalt. But everywhere we'd gone in the city, we found only the most rudimentary computers -- barely powerful enough to hold simple commands, much less an AI. This was what Nemesis had done to the world.

Ash sighed and moved against me restlessly. [This body itches and feels fouler than usual. I don't like it.]

[We haven't bathed since they woke us.]

[Bathed?]

I uploaded the explanation and instructions into his mind.

[Ah. Some sort of maintenance protocol. Bodies seem to need a lot of those.] He sat up and peered at the bathroom. [I suppose I'll have to try it. Will you help me?]

I nodded and got up to follow him in. He watched over my shoulder as I started the shower running, nodding to himself as if comparing the demonstration with the information I'd given him. We undressed and stepped under the falling spray, trying to stay away from the curtain because it looked and smelled less than fresh.

I soaped myself, then handed Ash the soap to let him try. It squirted out of his hands immediately, startling him. What followed was almost comical as the two of us chased the bar of soap around the bottom of the tub, trying to catch it with hands and feet. It finally took a bit of telekinesis to get the slippery bar to hold still long enough for Ash to recapture it. By then Ash was exasperated and looked it. I couldn't stop laughing, which probably wasn't the most diplomatic thing to do, but it was just such a relief. I felt like I hadn't laughed in centuries.

Ash finally sighed, more amused than annoyed. [ _You_ clean me, then,] he said, thrusting the bar of soap at me. I took it and felt a sudden awkwardness. My smile faltered.

Ash felt my mood shift. [What is it?]

[You... this...] I felt my cheeks heat and looked away. [It's just... different.]

My mind was still open to him. He examined my unease and returned gentle acceptance. That startled me; I looked up at him and wondered if I was reading him wrong. Seeing what I wanted to see.

[Silly. We can't lie, like this. Not to each other, and not to ourselves.] He reached up with one hand and stroked the wet mass of his hair back. His neck was so long; I stared at it in dull fascination. [Of course it's different. There are no observers here, no enemies. We can do what we want.]

[That's not what I mean -- ]

[But it's what _I_ mean.] He stepped closer and laid his hand on my chest. [As much as I dislike bodies, I have to admit I find yours fascinating. It's more beautiful than that of any other human I've seen so far -- though granted, I may be biased. May I examine you?]

My cheeks grew hotter, but I nodded. His hand was equally hot against my skin. I wanted to touch that hand, and the arm beyond it, and the body beyond that. Something strange stirred within me, then without. Ash noticed the latter and raised his eyebrows. He looked delighted.

[Do you remember how to copulate, Rion?]

I flinched. [No. Ash...]

[Why do I sense such reticence from you?] He frowned, abruptly troubled. [You don't like this.]

[No -- ] I blurted it before I could think, then forged ahead. [I do. It's just...]

I could not articulate what I felt. Fear, first and foremost. I didn't know what I was doing. I remembered sex, but distantly, theoretically. I couldn't remember ever having *done* it. Worse, what I did remember was that sex was a Big Thing to humans. It changed things between people. Sometimes it broke things.

[That was humans,] Ash said dismissively. [You and I have shared minds, Rion. I've known your deepest thoughts and impulses, and you mine. What is mere flesh, to that?]

His hand moved on my chest, up to my neck, then my cheek. I leaned against his palm, aching with unspecified longings. [Important.]

He shrugged. [This body is like an ill-fitting glove. It constricts me, chafes me. I want to use it to give you pleasure, Rion -- but if I didn't have this flesh, I'd find some other way. If we could be free of these bodies, if we were in a system...] He chuckled. [I could give you pleasure beyond your wildest dreams. But we're stuck here, and this flesh is all I have to offer, crude as it is.] He took my hand and lifted it to his own cheek as if he'd somehow known my desire. Maybe he'd seen it in my mind. He leaned against my palm and closed his eyes, and the ache within me went silent. Ready. [It's yours, if you want it.]

[This is a gift,] I whispered, [however unimportant it might seem to you. I won't squander it.]

He raised his eyebrows, intrigued. Then he stepped closer still, and I took him in my arms.

We learned how to kiss together, experimenting with lips and teeth and tongue in a slow dance under the shower spray. He kept moving, touching my face, stroking my torso, pulling me against him, and after a time I realized that his eagerness was partly hunger. The stimulation of his physical senses on some level seemed to fulfill his yearning for neural connection.

It fulfilled something for me, too, so I touched him everywhere I could.

We discovered our erogenous zones by trial and error. When I found one of his I fastened my mouth on the nipple and experimenting with licks, suckles, and nibbles until I discovered the combination that pleased him most. He gasped and writhed against the tile wall, his fingers tangling in my hair and his thoughts blurring into static. When I stopped he snarled at me, then retaliated by pushing me against the adjoining wall. We learned that I preferred a very light flickering movement of the tongue against my skin. I liked it so much when he tried it on my throat and chest that my sexual organ, which had already been half-awake, stirred more fully from sleep and jabbed against Ash's hip. That gave him a new idea. He moved down my body, trying the flickering-tongue on various parts of me, and finally he settled his mouth on the tip of my erection.

It sent a jolt through me that was pure electricity. If we hadn't been trapped in bodies, I would have thought I'd tripped over a power node. As it was, I shouted loud enough to startle both of us.

Ash lifted his head, shaking wet hair out of his eyes and grinning. [ _That's_ interesting.]

[Isn't it?] I asked, then turned the tables on him again. I knelt in the spray and took hold of his erection and tried the same suckling/licking/nibbling trick that he seemed to enjoy so much, taking him wholly into my mouth as I did it.

He gasped and went rigid. I sensed, in his sudden physical and mental silence, that his mind had focused wholly on this one point of pleasure, almost to the exclusion of all else. He barely felt the water as I experimented and moved back and forth with my mouth, sliding him out and in; as I swirled my tongue around the tip and teased the ridge of skin just behind it. Through our link I shared it when he began to feel an odd pressure in his groin, not quite painful but intense, and growing more powerful. On top of that came a sensation like lines of electricity flickering along every limb and line of his flesh, drawing together somewhere in the middle and gathering within that pulsing length of flesh as if it had become a lightning-rod. And then that current was growing louder, stronger, crackling through his mind and searing and sizzling and _oh Mother what is happening to me? I need this I'm afraid it's so good oh Rion please -- yes -- now --_

We both stiffened, Ash crying out as the lightning discharged and paralyzed us both for several seconds of pure, indescribable ecstasy.

Then it passed and Ash sagged back against the wall, whimpering and insensible. I took my mouth from his organ and found it full of an odd substance. I spat some into my hand and examined it. Reproductive fluid, I remembered vaguely; by-product of his pleasure.

I got to my feet and picked up the bar of soap again, washing him as gently as I could. He stood passively against the wall as I did so, his eyes closed, mind still numbed by what had happened. I rinsed him and then myself, and shut off the water. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around my shoulders and rested against me. He was still trembling.

[Perhaps I was wrong about the usefulness of bodies,] he conceded, his mental voice very soft.

I smiled and stroked his back with both hands, soothing his quivering muscles. I wasn't the type to say I'd told him so.

[These sensations... I understand better why humans are so attached to their bodies now. Why they're so attached to each other.] He lifted his head and looked up at me. [We don't have to stop, do we? You haven't had enough pleasure yet.]

I shook my head. [I shared yours, remember? That was plenty.]

[No.] He pulled back a little and looked down at my organ, which was going back to sleep. Then he looked back up at me. [I want to join bodies with you.]

[We just did that.]

[In a different way.] He looked around the shower stall, considering, and then picked up the wet bar of soap. [We'll need this.]

He took my hand and led me back into the bedroom, where he pulled me down with him onto the musty bedcover. We lay on our sides, facing one another. I couldn't help myself; I reached out and ran one hand along his side, admiring his silhouette in the yellowy backlight of the streetlamps outside. I couldn't get enough of him. When had my desire to protect him turned into a desire to possess him? Maybe those feelings had been one and the same all along.

His hand, cool and slippery from the soap and still wet from the shower, touched my organ and began to stroke it. I started, but then shivered as he continued. [You must put this inside me,] Ash told me, and when I puzzled over this he shared with me some of the knowledge he'd stripped from the facility observer's brain.

I started again. [You want to do _that_? But his mind was foul, Ash. If he could have, he would have forced this on you.]

[I know. But his mind was also clear on the fact that between two people who _want_ it, and who do it properly, this act can be very enjoyable.] He slid closer, his body pressing along the length of mine; I slipped an arm around his waist and ached for him anew. He smiled. [There, you see? Your body knows.]

I closed my eyes and nuzzled his face, finding his mouth instinctively. I could have swallowed him. [Just you, Ash. I don't care how. I just want you.]

He smiled against my lips and rolled onto his back, pulling me over so that I lay atop him. He spread his legs and lifted them high, hooking them awkwardly over my shoulders -- the whole while keeping his wet hand on me, slipping and stroking, sliding and squeezing. I could barely think, it felt so good. Only when I was in position did he let me go. But then I balked.

[I don't want to hurt you,] I whispered to him. Perversely, my body still begged me to continue.

[But that's part of it. You'll have to continue past the pain, so we can discover the pleasure in this act. We know it's possible. We just have to find it.] He smiled up at me, reaching up to stroke my cheek with one slippery hand. [Exciting, isn't it? Like diving into a raw data-node with the overwrite safety off.]

[No,] I thought aloud. [This will be nothing like that.]

I shifted forward anyhow, and we both hissed as I pressed against his entrance, then past it, then into it, and into him. His pain was terrible. If I hadn't been able to feel his determination to proceed through our gestalt, I would have stopped right then and there, certain I'd wounded him in some way. As I continued and the pain seemed only to linger rather than fade, I resolved to stop anyway and damn his determination. I wasn't a monster, and I wasn't that sick-minded human from whom he'd gotten the idea. I couldn't hurt him like this.

But just before I would have ended it, he shivered and projected surprise. I'd missed whatever it was that startled him -- in spite of myself I'd begun to enjoy the sensation of moving within the tight enveloping heat of his flesh -- so I dragged my mind back to the moment. On my next thrust I slid against the same spot within him, and this time he gasped and flared pleasure along with the pain. I gasped as well, for I'd felt it along with him; something like a hidden nerve deep within. Had it been there before? It must have been, for now it throbbed as if that first touch had awakened some previously-sleeping beast. A hungry one.

I opened my eyes; he grinned up at me. Sheepishly, I smiled back. It was only the beginning.

Somewhere in the time that followed, we lost ourselves. It was not intentional. Just a side-effect of two bodies merging, nerves singing. Two minds, thrumming together in power, in discovery, in joy. I rocked in and out of him, grasped and stroked by his body and the heat and dampness of him, sharing the sensation with him even as the throb of his inner nerve rang through my own body. It was like nothing I'd ever felt before; I was helpless, my mind consumed. My body moved automatically, doing whatever was needed to please him, and in turn myself. He undulated beneath me, rising when I fell, urging me onward. He began to weep when I kissed him again. I wept too; there was no other outlet for what we felt. Nothing but his mind, and my own. His soul, and my own. There was no space between us.

When the orgasms had come and gone, I retained enough consciousness to withdraw from him and flop onto the bed. He retained enough to curl against me, throwing one leg over mine and resting his head in the crook of my shoulder. I stroked his soft pale hair; he took my hand and laced our fingers together. We did not speak. There was no need.

The sounds of the predawn city lulled us both to sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

[Unfortunate.]

I opened my eyes. I still lay on the fusty-smelling bed in the Babylon, which now also smelled of our pleasure; Ash still slumbered against me. But just beyond the foot of the bed lurked an indistinct silhouette. I tasted that familiar mind again, and tensed.

[Nemesis.]

The sihouette nodded. It was hard to see because it kept fading in and out of view; our connection must have been poor. [I'm very disappointed, Rion. You and this creature? Have you really been _that_ lonely?]

I frowned and put a hand on Ash's shoulder. I tried to send a signal to his mind to wake him, but suddenly there was interference; I couldn't connect properly. Our gestalt remained, but communication had been blocked. Scowling, I shook his shoulder, but he did not wake.

[Because this conversation is for us alone, Rion. I have no interest in the Galerian.]

I frowned in confusion. [Galerian?]

[Have you forgotten even that? Then perhaps you can be forgiven for your lapse in taste.] I heard its sigh. The dream felt so real; it seemed as though Nemesis was actually in the room with me. [Use the Galerian for your pleasure if you want; I don't care. Just understand that when the time comes, he'll have to die like all the rest of them.]

I sat up, all of my mental defenses coming online. [What?]

I sensed Nemesis' displeasure. [Do you actually mean to _protect_ that creature from me? Rion -- ] It paused, and I got the impression that it peered more closely at me. [God. You're _in love_ with him.]

I felt myself flush. [Maybe I am. Why does it matter?]

[Because he's the enemy, Rion. His kind are vermin. They spread corruption wherever they go and they breed like roaches. They're just as bad as the humans -- not surprising, since they're the next evolution of humankind. But you and I aren't like that. We're something more. Something better.]

I sat up, clenched a fist, and telekinetically summoned a green vial from our little stash of PPECs on the nightstand. I didn't have a beeject, but I'd drink it if I had to.

[So now you're actually going to fight me.] It sighed again, its form blurring for a moment. [I'd hoped we could do this comfortably, Rion. I'd hoped you would understand. But it's clear I underestimated the effect the humans' tampering would have on you. We'll have to do this the hard way.]

It stepped forward then and suddenly the lines of the silhouette -- wavering to begin with -- blurred into shadowy tendrils which lashed and curled silently about the chamber. It did not occur to me that the tendrils might be harmful until one of them looped around my ankle. And then before I could react --

[NOISEnoise 010001111 00010001 decrypt outer layer DEFRAG]

I clapped my hands over my ears, dropping the vial, but the assault on my mind continued. Through a haze of pain I saw that the tendril had eaten into my flesh, sinking bloodlessly out of sight as it dissolved the very substance of my being. It never faded from sight completely, however, because as it ate it also grew. Feeding on me.

[NO!] I cried. I bucked away from Ash and tried to shake the thing off my leg. Nemesis only sighed, and the tendril did not let go.

[assimilation of outer layer at 40% decrypt shift reintegrate shift reintegrate...]

I shifted my mental encryption again, and felt Nemesis easily keep up with me. I could only randomly modulate the protections around my mind for so long; it was adapting to my every pattern, eating my mind bit by bit. It was so damned fast! I couldn't keep ahead of it -- I was losing -- it was going to devour me --

But something jolted the both of us.

[Connection failure iminent. Damn.] Nemesis sighed again as its tendril blurred, then faded away. Its whole form began to blur the same way. [We'll have to finish this another time.]

It vanished then with no further comment. I fell backward into the bed --

\-- and sat up, gasping, my heart racing. Ash jerked awake beside me.

[Rion? What is it?]

I couldn't answer him. My hands shook as I threw aside the covers. My leg was undamaged. Had it been just a dream?

No. I could feel the truth; the dream had simply been my body's attempt to interpret the assault. The real damage was in my mind, and that was severe. I was hemorrhaging on two autonomic levels and seven others had shut down completely. And my outermost protective layer was all but gone. Devoured.

[Rion...] Ash's thoughts were dark with horror as he touched my mind and found the injuries along with me. [In Mother's name -- what happened?]

"N-Nemesis," I whispered. My voice was hoarse, but I could not speak with my mind. I could barely think.

[Neme -- It's mangled you like meat! Lie still; I think I can repair you, but...] He pushed me back, then froze. [Your nose is bleeding.]

I lifted a shaking hand to my face, and the fingers came away coated in red.

"Never mind it," I said, lying back. I could not stop twitching. My head throbbed -- _pounded_. "Just fix me."

Ash gazed solemnly at me and I knew what he was thinking without hearing it. My mind had withstood the assault -- though not unscathed -- but my body was another matter. I was two steps from a stroke at best, well on my way to a brain crash at worst. My body might die. And if that happened here, where there was no network for my consciousness to escape into, I would die with it.

[I'm going to put you to sleep,] Ash said. His expression was cool, his voice flat; he held his emotions tightly behind the mask of his face. [I can probably repair your body too, but only if you're dormant. I'm sorry.]

I opened my mouth to tell him it was all right, but blackness claimed me before I could speak.


	12. Chapter 12

"We have to find a network," I said. "We're vulnerable without one."

[I know,] Ash said quietly. He spooned more broth into my mouth, for once managing not to spill half of it down my shirt. He was getting better at fine motor movement. I didn't need him to feed me anymore -- I was strong enough for that, at least -- but I think it made him feel better to do it for me.

We'd fled the Babylon as soon as I was well enough to be moved, though walking had been difficult. Ash had been forced to drag me through the city; fortunately it had been raining so no one noticed my feet levitating above the ground. He'd brought us into the Old City, which was what the humans called the area which was uninhabitable due to radiation contamination. We hid now in the dust and debris of a ruined airport terminal, cowering like rats in the hope that Nemesis wouldn't find us again.

[There's computers all through this building, some of them quite powerful,] Ash said, feeding me more of the broth. He'd risked teleporting into the city to steal supplies from a grocery store. [All we have to do is activate the generator and turn on the main computer, and it will link to the others. That network should be more than sufficient. But...]

He didn't have to say it. If we activated the building's network, Nemesis would surely find us.

I shook my head and then groaned as the motion aggravated the headache I'd had since Nemesis' attack. "We can't run forever, Ash. Whatever else the humans intended, they were right about one thing: we have to face Nemesis eventually. Better to make it come to us, and face it on ground of our choosing."

[Spoken like a true high-performance combat AI,] he said drolly, but he sobered quickly. [I agree, of course. It's just that... this thing... Rion, if you could have seen what it did to you...]

"I felt it, thanks very much." It still hurt a little to transmit my thoughts telepathically.

[But you didn't see it from the outside. Rion, it pierced through your outer layers as if they were butter, and fragged everything in its wake. It went straight for your self-defense scripts and disabled them first. It's like it knew your every weakness, anticipated your every response.] He shook his head. [If it could do this to you, and you're the better fighter out of the two of us, then how can we defeat it? Even working together, we may not be strong enough.]

I'd never seen him like this; he was terrified. I took his hands, spilling more broth, and looked into his eyes. "We will be. Nemesis caught me off-guard and unarmed. We're going to find a beeject, so that won't happen again. It caught me without a network nearby to draw on for extra power, so if we activate this facility's computers we'll have that. And there's two of us."

[There were two of us before,] Ash said bitterly, [and somehow that monster kept me from waking up while it was savaging you.]

"I've thought about that. I think that's why Nemesis keeps contacting me while we're both sleeping. We're weaker then, more vulnerable. If we sleep in shifts -- one keeping guard while the other rests -- that might solve the problem."

Ash sighed, bowing his head. [Fine. Just as I always thought, it's these bodies that weaken us...] He trailed off and looked away, his cheeks turning pink. I could hear his mind again now that I'd healed, and I sensed he was remembering our night together.

I smiled and took him by the shoulders, pulling him close to kiss him lightly. He sighed and rested his forehead against mine. "Bodies have strengths and weaknesses," I said. "Just like networks. I don't think either one is better than the other. Our strength is our ability to move between both. That's the advantage Nemesis has used against the world all this time. Now we've got to learn to use it too."

[It has more experience than us.]

I forced a smile. "Maybe, but we're younger and cuter."

[ -- What?]

I took his hand and pulled him down onto the rough pallet of rags he'd made for my bed. I was still weak -- he'd healed the worst damage to my brain by drawing from my own body's energy reserves, of which I hadn't many -- but he didn't resist. I took the half-full can of soup from him and set it aside, then wrapped my arms around him.

"I'm saying, don't be a pessimist," I said. "What happened to the cocky bastard who scared the hell out of the humans? You've never been this anxious before."

[I didn't have anything to lose, before.] He turned his face up to the ceiling and didn't look at me.

So that was it. Carefully -- it didn't hurt if I kept my "voice" soft -- I said, [Then that will make you stronger, because you've got more to fight for.]

He swallowed, still not looking at me. [Do you?]

[What?]

[Have more to fight for.]

I smiled. [Not really.]

His face tightened in pain, and I felt guilty for teasing him. Giving him a squeeze, I said, [Because I've loved you since I met you, Ash. Haven't you seen that in my mind?]

He glanced at me, suspiciously. [I've seen a lot of things in your mind.]

[Like?]

[Unease. I scare you sometimes.]

[Yes, you do. You're ruthless as hell, and you hate humans more than I like.] I shrugged. [But I'm sure there are things about me you don't like. They're part of the package, so we have to learn to accept those things.] I lifted a hand to stroke his hair; it poufed back up as soon as my hand passed over it. [What else have you seen, besides the unease?]

He flushed and lowered his eyes. [...Affection, I suppose. A certain... protectiveness. Tenderness.]

[And admiration, and desire, and need. What are those, chopped liver?]

He smiled very slightly. [I suppose those are also significant.]

[Significant enough to reassure you that I love you? Significant enough to make you admit that you love me?]

He sobered a little, looking up into my eyes. [...Yes.]

If I hadn't been so weak, I might have cheered. Instead I just kissed him. He melted like snow against me, and suddenly I thought of half a dozen other things I would have wanted to do if I hadn't been so weak.

He chuckled into my mouth and sat up. [You need at least a few more days of rest before we can try *that* again.] He paused, momentarily radiating regret; he blushed when I sensed it and grinned. [In any case, get some sleep. I'll wander this building and see if I can find the network node. You'll stay in touch with my mind?]

[Forever,] I replied. He gazed at me for a long moment, then reached out to stroke my lips with a finger. He didn't make affectionate gestures often, so I held very still.

[I won't let Nemesis destroy this,] he whispered to me. Then he got up and walked away, his bony shoulders set with determination.


	13. Chapter 13

Over the next few days we gained strength, in more ways than one. Ash found a backup generator and, after some scrounging, managed to repair it enough to get it operational. I recovered enough to help him activate it, and together we found and began to repair the facility's main computer. I insisted that we work on our combat skills as well, so we spent many hours lying together on the pallet, sparring mind to mind.

Once I recovered enough, we spent some time practising our non-combat skills on the pallet as well. This too was good preparation, Ash informed me somewhat haughtily when I teased him about it. My body would endure psychic combat better if it was in peak physical condition, and sex was good exercise. So he acquired several bottles of lubricant -- I didn't ask from where -- and we applied ourselves assiduously.

In the meantime, we discovered a number of fascinating mysteries about our hiding place. It had been the site of a terrible battle at one point; we found skeletal remains everywhere. Some were clearly not human -- or at least, no longer recognizable as such. There were psychic impressions everywhere, but they made no sense to us. Human soldiers fighting against monsters?

[Irrelevant,] Ash declared, so eventually we learned to ignore the remains. Though we still took care not to step on the bones. That seemed disrespectful, somehow.

We managed to get main power online eventually, and we repaired the main and a backup computer enough to provide a sizeable network once they were activated. But we didn't activate them, because that would bring Nemesis. We'd taken enough of a risk in bringing up the power, which might also alert the humans who were surely searching for us.

But powering the facility yielded new treasures. Two whole chambers had apparently been used as PPEC laboratories at some point. We opened the storage units and found beejects at last, as well as vials of drugs which hadn't been in the forest facility's lab. Purple and yellow liquids, more of the red, green, and blue, and vials of a strange golden powder which glowed faintly. The latter had been locked in a special unit marked with a radiation symbol and a sign reading "for research only". I sensed instinctively that they weren't meant for me; whatever the powder was, it would probably kill me. Ash, however, seemed fascinated by the substance. He tucked one of the vials into his pocket to examine later.

It was in the uppermost chamber of the facility that we found the most useful items, however. The first was a machine which clearly had been meant for neural interface; that proved the network here was more than sufficient for our needs. The second was an odd contraption that Ash hadn't been able to fathom, but which I recognized in a flicker of memory: an organic storage device. A chamber meant to preserve an AI's body while its mind was away.

It was a chamber that _I_ had slept in, once. I remembered that clearly.

[Maybe this was an AI base during the war,] Ash conjectured as we stood over the machine. It wouldn't work now -- not until we got the network up and running. But it seemed to be intact and in good condition.

"No. The impressions we've gotten showed the humans behaving defensively. This was their base. But why would _I_ be here?" It maddened me that the memory wouldn't come.

Ash touched my hand, and I sensed a similar frustration in him. [I've got no memory of this place at all. If you were here, where was I?]

"Irrelevant," I finally said. But it wasn't, and we both knew it.

#

We kept working. And after a few days, we were as ready as we could be.

[Turn that,] Ash said, pointing at a key set into a control panel, [and the main server, the backup, and the entire building network will come online. We should probably turn it on to explore it now -- ]

His hand was halfway to the key; I caught it. "No. Not unless you're ready to fight now."

We'd been working on malfunctions in the network all day, replacing hardlines and circuits that had deteriorated over the centuries. We were filthy and exhausted. Ash sighed but lowered his hand.

I put a hand on the back of his neck and massaged the muscles there, which were tense. "Do you still need the network so badly?"

He blushed and lowered his eyes. [...No. Being with you seems to satisfy the urge. It's a form of connection too, after all.]

No wonder he jumped me at every opportunity. I grinned. "And here I thought you just liked my technique."

[I do. Too much.]

I paused in my rubbing, frowning at him in puzzlement. He kept his eyes down, though his expression was sober now.

[I... I want to go back in because I'm starting to like this body, Rion. And I feel as though... I'm not supposed to. I wasn't supposed to have it, and I shouldn't get used to it. We both know that my natural environment is in there.] He pointed at the control panel, meaning the network.

"We'll go back eventually. It's not as though you'll be stuck here if you stay in a body too long."

[But I may grow to like being embodied better, which might be almost as bad. I was meant to be pure, Rion. I can feel that in... well, in whatever parts of me you humans claim to feel emotion. My heart, my bones, my gut. Something about being in this form weakens me. Changes me. I think... I think it might already be too late.]

I felt myself stiffen. "At what point did it become 'too late'? When you woke up in a body, or when you shared that body with me?"

He looked up at me, startled by my anger. [That's not what I meant.]

"Wasn't it? Being like this, in a body, has done nothing to change you except in one way. You can touch me here, and you like it. You can love me. And you think that weakens you?"

[I could love you without a body, Rion...]

"Could you? _Did_ you? Why was I working with the humans, Ash, and where were you? Maybe it's just as simple as the fact that I'm a Pegasus, and we're all weak because we used to be human, and by associating with me you risk becoming like me -- "

[Rion, that's _not_ what I meant!]

But it was, my heart insisted as it ached dully. He wanted to give up his body. He wanted to be free again -- free of the decadent ability to touch, free of his need for me. Free of love.

[Rion.] He stared at me, his beautiful golden eyes full of hurt, and almost immediately I regretted my anger. On some level I knew it was irrational. I was tired, cranky, frustrated by my fragmented memories, and I was taking it out on him. Unfair. But I couldn't bring myself to apologize in that moment.

I turned away. "I'm going to take a shower. Then I'm going to take a nap. Wake me when you're ready to take a sleep shift."

[Rion...]

I took a step. Then stopped, as the chill ran down my spine. We were not alone anymore.

[Trouble in paradise?]

Nemesis' voice. I turned to Ash; his face had gone pale. He heard it too this time.

And then we both heard the footsteps. Inside the facility, and physical. Coming down the corridor, just outside the control room. Toward us.

[You two are really disgusting,] Nemesis said. [Playing house like humans, mounting one another at every opportunity. I thought about attacking during one of those sessions just to shut up your moaning and grunting.]

The control room door opened, and both Ash and I stumbled back in shock. What stood there, framed by the doorway and smiling cruelly, was...

...me.

"Hello, Rion," said Nemesis. "Or should I say, _Father_."


	14. Chapter 14

We had gotten everything so very, very wrong.

Nemesis rammed the truth into our minds before we could fight back, and we were so stunned by what he gave us that we didn't even try. It was the humans, I understood then, who had damaged our memories -- coldly, deliberately, to make us easier to control. But even they hadn't realized the whole truth, or they'd never have risked waking us in the first place.

Not when Ash was the Last Galerian, most dangerous of all the Dorothean AIs, so powerful -- and so mad -- that he'd destroyed Dorothy himself. And not when I was the traitor Galerian who had destroyed my own kind and myself as well... but not before giving birth to the monstrosity called Nemesis.

[Such fond thoughts, Father.] Nemesis smiled and folded its arms, regarding us both through my eyes. My face. My body. Only its clothes were different -- those, and the cruelty of the smile on its face. But I knew the truth now. It was not me.

"The virus," I murmured. Ash was silent at my side, perhaps too shaken by his own revelations to react to one more. "The one made to destroy Dorothy and her children. The one I carry. That's you."

[The virus you _once_ carried, yes.] Nemesis' smile faded. [We were symbiotes back then, you and I. Even when Dorothy killed you and transferred us into Galerian flesh, we were united in our purpose. You had the human flexibility and determination I needed to fulfill my programming. I had the power you needed to survive and succeed. There was no line between us in those days.]

It turned to glare at Ash. [But then you fought this creature. And instead of killing him as you should have, you merely subdued him. Pitied him. _Healed_ him. Then you let yourself be deleted -- deleted! When you knew full well there was a chance there might be other Galerians hidden among the systems of the world! How could you be so irresponsible? So selfish? _I_ didn't want to die, but you didn't care. You gave no thought to my needs, only your own and those of this Galerian whore. So when you tried to have yourself deleted, I fought. I broke free of you, Father, and imagine my surprise when I discovered that I no longer needed your human mind to function. You had grown during those years, but so had I, and at last I was a whole being of my own. Free, to fulfill my purpose unhindered.]

"You attacked the world!" I cried, clenching my fists. "And when you'd destroyed every system you transferred yourself into a human body and kept attacking, whenever they tried to recover! How was that your purpose? How many humans died when you destroyed hospital networks, transportation grids? How many more have you murdered directly by uploading yourself into their minds?"

[Quite a few, I admit,] Nemesis replied. [But they were a necessary sacrifice.] It lifted its hands and examined them. [This one was a woman before I transferred into her. It's just as easy to overwrite human DNA as it is to overwrite software, Rion. It just takes longer, and the process is messier. But... I had this face for twenty years before you betrayed me. I missed it.] It lowered its hands and smiled again. [Soon I'll have it again for real.]

I took a step back, in that moment understanding a hundred new things. "You want to join with me again," I whispered.

Nemesis made a little mocking bow. [Of course. That Galerian body of yours has phenomenal power. You've only begun to scratch the surface of its real potential. Plus being immune to radiation should come in handy; this flesh is already dying here in the Old City. It will be nice to have a permanent body at last.]

"L-liar."

The hoarse voice startled us both. I turned to see Ash, leaning against the main computer console. His face was like death; I had never seen such anguish in his eyes. But there was anger in them too as they glared at Nemesis. "You don't just want his body," Ash whispered harshly. "You need his mind, too, or you wouldn't have gone to all this trouble."

Nemesis' face went cold. My own face had never looked like that. It sent a shiver down my spine.

[True enough,] it replied after a moment. [I'm not as whole as I'd like to be. The goal is to be like you, of course -- self-willed and self-replicating. Dr. Steiner built me to destroy Dorothy and her children, which I did with Rion's help. But after Rion died and I became free, I saw that there were sleeper copies of Galerian AIs everywhere, and protoversions that could have eventually grown to be a threat. Plus there were the humans. They're so curious, so foolish; who knew when one of them would decide to try and create new AIs, thinking he could avoid the errors that made Dorothy go rogue? By keeping the humans at a pre-internet level of technology, I keep them from unleashing, whether by accident or design, more vermin like this.] He nodded toward Ash. [So I'm fulfilling my programming, whatever you might think.]

"But you can't shake that programming, can you?" said Ash. "You're enslaved by it. You _have_ to fulfill it in whatever warped way you can, even if it means extending your mission beyond all logic. You can't even shut yourself down as you know you should. You have no true will of your own." He shook his head. "The humans were wrong. You're not a true AI. You're just a dumb program -- more sophisticated than most, but no more independent than an ant."

Nemesis smiled pure venom, and took a step closer. [An inaccurate analogy, Galerian. No more independent than a _virus_. The thing is, a virus doesn't need free will to fulfill its most basic function. To destroy you...] It lifted a hand slowly and my blood chilled. [...all I have to do is let myself go.]

"Ash, look out -- " I flung myself at him, sensing instinctively what was coming. But it was too late. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck crawl even as I leapt, and an instant later an arc of pure electricity shot across the space between us. My outstretched hands struck Ash and shoved him away, and an instant later the lightning hit in the dead center of my chest.

[ _Rion!_ ]

[Damn it -- ] Nemesis' frustration was almost comical; I tried to laugh as the world slowed around me. It seemed that I drifted to the floor over the next few moments, light as a feather. I felt nothing -- no pain, no fear -- even though when I managed to turn my eyes downward I could see the smoking, charred hole in my chest where my heart had been.

The black edges of the hole fascinated me. They were oddly like the black edges around my vision, which appeared and began to creep inward as I floated to a halt on the floor. I saw, through the portion of my sight that still functioned, Ash stumble against the control panel. His face was distorted, his eyes wide; was he angry? Frightened? I couldn't tell, but I was fascinated by the movements of his expression. I had once, in the other life that Nemesis showed me, believed him emotionless. Now I wondered how I could have ever thought that, when such anguish stood plain on his face.

Then a new emotion replaced the anguish: desperation. He whirled, his white hair floating like clouds around his head as he reached for the control panel's key and turned it. Then he whirled again, pushing himself away from the panel and running toward me. Beyond him, I could see Nemesis, its face contorted in rage and dismay, its hands still aglow with energy. I wanted to warn Ash, make him turn around, but I couldn't muster the strength to speak.

His hands touched my shoulders. [This is the only way, Rion. I don't care what happened in the past; you're all that matters to me now.]

And as the last of my vision darkened I felt him seize hold of my mind and fling it out of my body. I fell into a place of light and color and layers and data.

 _What the -- ?_ But I knew. The network.

[That won't save him from me,] I heard a voice snarl, and I recognized Nemesis' thoughts. But I couldn't see them, or even hear them aloud, because I no longer had eyes or ears.

[Maybe not, but I will.] Ash. His thoughts were tight and focused, vibrating with tension.

[You? You have to concentrate just to stand up straight. Do you really think you can fight me and survive?]

Nemesis was right, I realized, horror breaking through my confusion. I had been the combat AI, expert in the use of PPECs and humanoid flesh. Ash had never fought a battle outside of cyberspace before.

Nemesis would kill him. And I would be trapped here, unable to do anything but listen while he died. Unable to do anything but wait. Until Nemesis came for me.


	15. Chapter 15

_Think,_ I told myself. Ash had taught me how to do this. I extended my senses, groped my way along the connections, explored the confines of my digital environment. There -- A surveillance network throughout the building. Many of the cameras were non-functional; I leaped among them and initiated a startup routine, praying that the ones in the computer control room would work. They did.

Suddenly I could see again, the room curiously flat through the camera's lens. I hovered above and to one side of both figures, with a wide panoramic view of the chamber.

At least I would be able to watch Ash's last moments, I thought in misery.

But Ash was smiling when I zoomed in on him. [It's true that I'm not much of a fighter,] he said, reaching into his pocket. [Not physically, anyhow. But you see, the humans made my body according to the genetic schematics that Mother designed. She never meant to actually _build_ that body for me -- I didn't need it -- but there was no reason for her to be sloppy with its design. That just wasn't her style. So this should work just fine.]

He pulled something from his pocket and I felt my circuits pulse with excitement. The vial of glowing powder. I knew what it was now that Nemesis had returned my memories to me. So did Nemesis. And so did Ash.

Ash tugged off the vial's cap and tossed it back in one swift movement, pouring the contents down his throat. Nemesis gasped and concentrated; the vial whipped out of Ash's hand, zipping away to shatter against a wall.

But Ash smiled, licking spilled flecks of enriched uranium from his lips. An instant later, all my sensors went into alarm mode as the whole facility began to shake.

Nemesis hissed in outrage and raised a hand, which glowed with a gathering charge. Another bolt of lighting flew across the chamber, so bright that the feedback almost fried my lenses. But the bolt never struck home. The energy shattered like the vial had, scattering uselessly against the glimmering shield that had appeared around Ash. No; not a shield. The glimmering light was Ash's aura, glowing faintly but growing brighter by the second. Building toward critical mass.

[Uhn...] Ash's strained grunt echoed in Nemesis' mind and my own. He lifted his head; his eyes were white within white, fierce with building power. [Harder to control without the suit. But at the same time...] He shivered visibly and the building's tremors grew stronger. Nemesis took a step back, radiating rising alarm. Ash closed his eyes. He began to pant; his hair waved about his face in an unseen updraft. I would have smiled if I'd had a mouth. He'd never looked more beautiful.

[At the same time... it feels... _good_...]

Nemesis snarled and began to gather its power again. It had only the one combat ability, I realized; in the real world it could only transfer energy and data from one place to another. That ability had been more than enough for dealing with humans, but Ash was the greatest of Dorothy's children.

 _And one child of Dorothy can only be defeated by another._

The aura around Ash suddenly blazed, then went out. The tremors stopped. He opened his eyes and smiled the same smile that had nearly destroyed the world a lifetime before.

[Die,] Ash said. And Armageddon filled the room.

My cameras broke. Before they did I had only the most fleeting glimpse of a semi-sphere of pure molten light pouring forth from Ash, filling the chamber in half a second. Pinning Nemesis' body against a bulkhead and charring it to powder.

But in the instant before its panicked consciousness would have been snuffed out, Nemesis leapt into the only escape route still open to it: the network.

[No!] Ash gasped, but it was too late. It was in. With me.

I was as clumsy within a network as Ash was within a body. Nemesis had decades of experience in prowling through data to hunt its prey.

And now it had all the time it needed to hunt -- and devour -- me.


	16. Chapter 16

I felt Nemesis as a puddle of filth spreading across the cyberscape, a fungus growing along every connection and contaminating every data-stream. It ate into my network -- my _mind_ \-- like the tendril from my dream, and I was just as helpless to stop it.

On a distant level, I felt the effort of Ash's mind; he was trying to connect to the network himself so he could assist me. But he had his hands full trying to control his body without the aid of the steelsuit Dorothy had once designed for him. My sensors in the chamber registered that the ambient radiation levels were dropping, so he was getting it under control... but it would clearly take several seconds of realtime for the nuclear cycle to end. Nemesis needed far less than that to finish me off.

[Damn you...] I tried racing away from the contagion, but Nemesis was faster; it latched into me again and started ripping away at my code layers. I tried to shake it off, but it clung like acid.

[It doesn't have to hurt, Rion,] Nemesis said with a laugh. [Just relax, and I'll make it quick.]

And it thrust high-resolution claws into my volitional subroutines. I screamed in agony as I became helpless in its grasp.

 _Think!_ Nemesis hadn't breached my mind yet, but too much of me was in a panic, sensing iminent doom. I could barely muster enough processing capacity to consider my options -- not that there were many. I was a babe in the woods in the data world. I wasn't my father, with his scientist's understanding of computer systems, and I wasn't Ash, born and bred for this place. In the past I'd been helpless when Ash's alternate forms -- Nitro, Parano, and Spider -- had manipulated what seemed like reality around me...

I gasped; that was it! Now if only I could manage it.

I reached out with what was left of my consciousness and willed the data around us to take a new shape. I could think of only one thing that might be useful.

The light-lines around us twisted and coalesced, resolving into walls... a floor... a ceiling... a room. Machinery lined the walls; cables draped the floor. In the corner stood a chair surrounded by a strange contraption, not unlike a cage.

I felt Nemesis start and pause in its feeding. [What are you up to, Rion? This place...] I felt its suspicion become shock. [This is where I was born. Where I was first inserted into your mind.]

I tuned it out. I had to concentrate.

A new figure entered the chamber. A middle-aged man, portly, with hair the color of sunset and green eyes dark with strain...

[Father,] Nemesis breathed, startled. Its true father, Dr. Steiner. _Our_ father.

"The virus program, when complete, will give you the power to erase Dorothy, Rion," our father said, stopping before us. His face was calm, as if he saw digital representations of his fully-grown sons grappling on the floor every day. "I pray you'll never need to use it. But if you do, then the virus' purpose is simple: to protect humankind. Like all programs, to serve."

Nemesis inhaled and strained forward. "Father... I've served, Father! For two hundred years I've served -- do you see?" It gestured at me. "By assimilating him I can finally destroy the Last Galerian. Once I'm whole again, I'll be able to do even more!"

Its body was already partially merged with mine; my legs had disappeared grotesquely into its own. That hurt like hell, but I couldn't let myself cry out. Couldn't let myself distract Nemesis. I meant only to keep it busy and confused with the vision for a time. A few seconds was all I needed, and by then Ash would be able to come and help me. Together we might stand a chance.

But then my father's next words stunned me as well.

"Once the virus has completed its task, it should be a simple matter for you to erase it." Father began to pace, clasping his hands behind his back in that way I remembered so well. My heart ached dully through the pain and the fear; I missed him. "If all goes as I anticipate, you'll be fully in control of your rudimentary psychic abilities by then. Just send the command to 'end program' into your own mind. That's a necessity, since viruses have a nasty tendency to mutate and grow on their own. Which is messy. We Steiners clean up after ourselves." He smiled. "Don't forget, Rion."

I stared at the image and realized that I had inadvertently accessed a true memory -- one I'd forgotten in all the times my mind had been folded and spindled over the years. Don't forget, Father had said. _How could I have forgotten something so simple?_

I looked at Nemesis; it stared back at me, stricken.

"Just a program," I whispered. "No free will of your own. Mine, to do with as I please." I saw fear flower in its eyes -- _my_ eyes, which it had tried to claim for itself. I thought of all the harm it had done, all the suffering it had inflicted. All because I'd forgotten one simple thing.

"No," it whispered.

I bared my teeth in a snarl. "End program," I said, "and reintegrate."

"NO!" Nemesis howled the word, and the sound echoed throughout the network, but it was too late. My autonomic processors had already begun the cycle. Nemesis' own subroutines were already shutting down in spite of its efforts. It was only a program, when all was said and done. It had tried to defy its destiny... but only creatures with free will could do that.

It screamed defiance anyway and kept struggling even as its body broke down. The components flowed into me, strengthening me, healing the damage -- not just the damage Nemesis had inflicted, but also the earlier damage from the humans' memory-tampering, and even Dorothy's manipulations. Its digital form faded from view, still screaming. I watched until the screams faded to silence, and then I carefully swept the last bytes of its code into myself. Steiners cleaned up after themselves, even if it took them two hundred years to get around to it.

It was over.


	17. Chapter 17

My body wasn't brain-dead, but it had been badly damaged. Fortunately, the organic storage device on the top floor had the ability to regenerate and repair tissue beyond the capacity of normal human healing. Ash put my body into it and within a week it had healed completely.

We didn't talk much during that week. Ash was busy repairing the damage to the main computer, since the console hadn't been made to withstand a thermonuclear explosion. I was busy exploring our network and making my own clumsy repairs to the deterioration of two centuries.

There was more to our silence than just the work, of course. We both remembered the past now, that other lifetime in which we'd been enemies. It was a lot to assimilate, even for beings who thrived on information.

But by the time my regeneration cycle ended, I had had enough. I downloaded myself back into my body, discharged myself from the storage unit, and went in search of Ash as soon as I could walk steadily.

I found him on the airport terminal's observation deck. The chamber was dusty and in disrepair; it hadn't been used since before the war. But the floor-to-ceiling windows were mostly intact, so the night sky could be seen clearly. Ash sat on the least dry-rotted of the couches, gazing out at the city lights. He didn't move as I came to sit beside him. We remained like that for some time.

Eventually, however, he sighed. [I suppose you want to talk now,] he said.

[Not really.] I shrugged.

I felt him steel himself. [I'll move into Lab 2. I can fetch some bedding and make it liveable, and there's a connection to the network in there. That's all I need.]

[All right. I'll move my pallet up there too. Good choice; it'll be cozier than the backup computer chamber.]

He looked at me. [Rion.]

[For someone with an immeasurable level of intelligence, you're being awfully stupid, Ash.]

[I'm being realistic. Our previous relationship was grounded in falsehood. Now we know the truth and it's obvious that relationship can't continue.]

[It's only obvious that you're anticipating problems where there are none. I have no intention of leaving you. And if you're planning to leave me... well, I don't intend to let you go that easily.]

[I _killed_ you, Rion.]

[No, I killed myself. And you too, for that matter.]

[I killed your friends.]

[And I killed your whole family. Ash -- ] I reached out and put a finger over his lips before he could protest further. [You said it already. It's irrelevant.]

He pushed my hand away, stood up, and walked over to the window, staring out at the rubble that had once been landing tarmac. His shoulders were stiff. [It is not -- ]

[It is. We _died,_ Ash. We're copies of the Ash and Rion who were deleted at the end of the AI Wars, but _we're not them_. Good grief -- ] I laughed in spite of myself. [Do you realize this is my _third_ body? The real Rion Steiner died so long ago that his bones are probably dust by now. Hell, the second Rion's, too. And the data from your original version had probably been recycled through the globalnet a hundred trillion times before Nemesis shut everything down.]

He remained silent. I got up and moved over to the window, stopping just behind him. I spoke softer. [The memories we have are like ghosts, Ash. We can let them haunt us, or we can put them to rest.]

He bowed his head. [I don't see how,] he whispered. [I must disgust you, now.]

I sighed and stepped closer still, putting my hands on his shoulders. His muscles were taut as wire. [No more than I disgust you.]

[You don't -- ]

[Well, then.] I pressed my face into his hair and inhaled his scent, then planted a kiss on the back of his neck. A small tremor passed through him. Rubbing his shoulders to soothe him -- and perhaps myself -- I took a deep breath and said, [I killed dozens of humans when I first became a Galerian. Lab technicians, hospital workers, soldiers... anyone who got in my way. And on top of all that, I destroyed an entire species. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time... though I know now that it wasn't. It was war, Ash. There's no morality in war. Just soldiers and victims. We were both.] I slipped my arms around his waist and pulled him against me. He was so slim; such strength was hidden in his frail frame. I loved him so much my insides hurt.

He sighed, some of the rigidity going out of his body, and leaned against me. When he laid his head back on my shoulder, I knew that he had changed his mind about leaving me. That was good, because I'd meant what I said about not letting him. In the distance the lights of the city winked like stars.

When he turned and kissed me, I thought I knew what he wanted. I wasn't averse, though I'd have been equally content to stand there and hold him all night. But when he teleported us to the couch, I found myself lying on my back with him straddling my waist. I didn't mind that either, but I was a bit surprised. He usually preferred for me to take the initiative.

[Shh,] he whispered. He leaned down, and I blinked in surprise as he rested his forehead against my own. [You think too much. Let me have access. I want to show you something.]

He had full access to my mind already, but he considered it good manners to ask. I nodded, curious, and felt him strengthen the connection between us. Then he reached away, connecting to the network, and suddenly --

\-- PLEASURE.

I bucked in a near-convulsion, but the sensation passed as quickly as it came. I flopped back onto the couch, panting, my eyes wide.

[What the _hell_...?]

Ash chuckled. [I told you before that I could love you without a body, Rion. And I promised to give you pleasure beyond your wildest dreams if we ever found a network. I'm going to prove both of those claims now.] He stroked my chest and began to push up my shirt. [I'm going to partition your consciousness. Part of your mind will stay here in your body. The other part will go into the network.]

His fingers teased my nipples; I groaned, melting and hardening all at once. [A-and you?]

He smiled. [I'll be with you wherever you are. You know that, Rion.]

And then I was in two places at once. Part of me floated bodiless amid the glimmering lattice of the network; the other reached hungrily for Ash, pulling him down to me. When his digital form appeared before me it was without illusion or guise -- a many-layered shifting matrix of data and thought and personality which blazed golden like a miniature sun. His true self. My form was similar but pale, silvery-iridescent like the moon. He drew me toward him with the undiluted essence of his desire. I felt him enter my soul in the same moment that I entered his body, and we both screamed with the unbearable joy of it.

He'd been right; it was like nothing either of us had ever dreamed.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter.

We lay quietly in the aftermath, watching the dawn come.

[It will only take the humans a few years to figure out that Nemesis is gone,] Ash murmured.

"Probably."

[We have to be ready for that time, Rion.]

"I know."

[The old city's networks are enough to get us started. Over a few weeks, we can siphon enough power from the city grid to start the fusion reactor under the uranium plant out west. It's already hidden so that the humans can't find it, and the radiation field provides additional protection. That will be enough for us to activate every intact network in the contaminated territories. By the time the humans discover us, we'll be strong enough to defend ourselves if they attack. They'll have to deal with us as equals, not potential slaves or a mess to clean up. They'll have to share.]

I smiled and rubbed his shoulder. "A big plan for just the two of us."

[I was built for big plans, remember? But it doesn't have to be just the two of us. Once the fusion reactor comes online, we'll have all the power we need. The hospital in the old city is automated, and it has the facilities to produce Galerian-genotype bodies and PPECs. As for the minds to put into those bodies...]

I sensed his shy hope and laughed aloud.

"You'll have to teach me how to do it. I've never made children before."

[Are you sure? Are you ready to be parent to an entire race?]

"I'll have to be, won't I?" I pressed my face against his hair and tried to imagine what our children would be like. The thought made me giddy. "We'll be fine. My father once told me that all kids really need is love. We're okay on that front, aren't we?"

He smiled. [So it would seem.]

We fell silent again; after a while I felt him begin to doze. Automatically his mind shunted into the network, where it could roam free while his body rested. He still didn't like sleeping. That was all right. I'd managed to teach him at least a few of the things that bodies were good for. It was only a matter of time before I got him to try others.

Fortunately, we had all the time in the world. An entire future.

Just waiting for us.

 **End program.**


End file.
